EDMONTON — COVID-19 outbreaks have been declared at a hospital in Calgary and a university in Edmonton.

Alberta Health Services says 10 patients and two staff members have tested positive for the novel coronavirus at the Foothills Medical Centre.

All at-risk patients in the three affected units are being offered testing, and contact tracing is ongoing.

Visitors may not visit patients on the units except in end-of-life situations.

In Edmonton, an outbreak at a student residence on the main University of Alberta campus means no varsity athletics for the next two weeks.

The university says in a statement that five members of the men’s residence at St. Joseph’s College have tested positive for COVID-19.

They are isolating, along with 14 other men living at the residence, and the university says it is sanitizing and deep-cleaning areas the five may have been in.

The website for the residence says, along with spiritual direction and daily mass, it is also a leader of the university’s intramural sports program.

The university says it doesn’t know which sports may have been affected, but is shutting down in-person varsity athletics for the next two weeks.

It says individuals who may have been exposed will be contacted by health officials.

The statement says all other residences at the University of Alberta are considered safe and at low risk of exposure.

Alberta’s last COVID-19 update on Thursday reported 1,424 active cases and 255 deaths.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 21, 2020

The Canadian Press

CALGARY — Obsidian Energy Ltd. is formalizing its hostile takeover bid for rival Bonterra Energy Corp. 

It says it will offer two Obsidian shares for each Bonterra share until Jan. 4.

The share-swap offer is the same as the proposal in a declaration of intent made in late August, despite Bonterra shares continuing to trade for more double those of Obsidian.

On Friday, Bonterra stock closed at $1.22 per share, about 2.1 times the value of Obsidian stock at 57 cents.

In a news release, Obsidian says the takeover would create a “Cardium champion” by combining the two companies’ assets in the region, while providing financial strength to add to that base by buying other Cardium lands.

It says the merged company have production of 35,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, three times the size of Bonterra in the second quarter.

“Since we publicly announced our interest in a combination with Bonterra, we have received encouraging feedback from a significant number of shareholders of both companies and other interested parties that reinforces our view that the combination of Obsidian Energy and Bonterra is in the best interests of both companies and their respective stakeholders,” interim Obsidian CEO Stephen Loukas said.

Bonterra didn’t formally respond to the initial Obsidian approach, but said it would continue to pursue financing from the Business Development Bank of Canada, in co-operation with its existing syndicate of lenders, that would allow it to restart its suspended capital program and allow it to bring production back to last year’s levels.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 21, 2020.

Companies in this story: (TSX:BNE, TSX:OBE)

The Canadian Press