Alberta cases shoot back up, Medicine Hat now has 10 cases

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province’s chief medical officer health, said up to 204 are suspected to be a result of community transmission. The death announced was that of a woman in her 80s in the McKenzie Towne Long Term Care Home in Calgary, the 11th death at the facility.

There are 22 cases total in the South Zone, including one active case in Cypress County, two active cases in the County of 40 Mile No. 8, and one active and one recovered case in the MD of Taber.

The geospatial map on alberta.ca is now showing active and recovered cases, which it wasn’t showing last week.

Jason Kenney says the number of hospitalizations in Alberta remains “low and manageable” at 40, which includes 16 ICU cases.

“I would say this is one of the most encouraging signs about our performance so far in Alberta with our high level of testing but also the relatively lower levels of hospitalizations and ICU admissions,” says Kenney.

“We can be thankful here in Alberta that we have not seen anything like the numbers experienced in those other jurisdictions,” said Kenney about rates in places like Spain and the U.S. “Our relative success in controlling the spread is a tribute to the swift implementation of our effective pandemic response plan by Alberta Health Services and to the skill, efforts and courage of our batallions of front-line health workers who saving lives every day in the fight against coronavirus.”

In a televised address to the province planned for Tuesday evening, Kenney says he will update Albertans on the plan of action for the weeks and months to come.

“We will be providing some of the modelling done by Alberta Health Services that shows us when we might hit the peak and how well prepared we are for that. I ask people to be prepared for what could be some very challenging numbers as we look at the prospective damage that this virus can still do in our province.”

Hinshaw went on to say Alberta is second only to Australia in its testing rate.

“It is extremely important that in addition to completing as many tests as we can, we are also being purposeful in our testing,” she said. adding the groups eligible for testing will change “as we move through the evolution of the pandemic and our testing capacity evolves.”

Hinshaw says testing priorities have been expanded to include individuals with shortness of breath, runny nose, cough, feer or sore throat who perform the following roles:

Group home or shelter workers, first responders including firefighters, provincial and federal corrections staff and police, peace and bylaw officers and public health officials.

Testing is also being expanded Tuesday to anyone 65 years or older across the province who has fever, cough, shortness of breath, runny nose or sore throat.

“Knowing that older Albertans are at increased risk for complications if they are infected with COVID-19, we are expanding testing access to enable early detection of infection in this group of people,” says Hinshaw. “Identifying infections in all of these groups will help us to prevent the spread to high-risk populations living in close quarters, more closely trace any community transmission among the testing groups and provide more valuable information on the effects of our public health measures.”

Responding to a common question over the past few days, Hinshaw says she has always said transmission is possible from someone who is infected but feels well.

Emerging evidence around such transmissions and the use of face masks by those that are felling well has been discussed in some circles.

“What we know is that people who are sick spread illness. We also know that even with more asymptomatic transmission happening than previously thought, all of the recommendations we’ve made about keeping two metres from others, having close contacts of cases or returning travellers stay home for two weeks from their last exposure, those recommendations are more important than ever.”

In addition to, not in place of all that advice, there may be benefit for those who are well and in places where they cannot keep two metres distance from others to wear a face covering, Hinshaw says.

She added wearing a non-medical mask such as a homemade cloth covering has not been proven to protect the person wearing it but may be helpful in protecting others. She said such masks should be well fitted and should be worn only a short tie to decrease the risk of virus particles attaching to the mask.

Jason Copping, the minister of labour and immigration, announced temporary changes to provide job protection for workers and flexibility for employers during this pandemic.

Changes include employees caring for children affected by school and daycare closures or ill or self-isolated family members due to COVID-19 having access to unpaid job-protected leave and increasing the maximum time for a temporary layoff from 60 days to 120 days to ensure temporarily laid off employees stay attached to a job longer.

Kenney announced measures to ensure Alberta will maintain an adequate supply of the three main types of protective masks – the respirator mask (N95 or equivalent), a procedural mask, and low-protection homemade cloth or store bought dust masks. Kenney says the government is undertaking a mass procurement of non-medical masks to help keep Albertans safe.

Kenney said the legislature will reconvene on Tuesday and consider further amendments to the Emergency Management Act.

Kenney also praised the essential services workers and all Albertans who are stepping up, including those practising rigorous hygiene, staying home as much as possible and keeping a safe physical distance from others.

The premier noted the Bits and Pieces program has seen a spike in offers since Friday, tripling to nearly 3,000 over the weekend.

The full April 6 release from the province can be found here.

by Chris Brown

Alberta cases shoot back up, Medicine Hat now has 10 cases

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