By Chris Brown

'Extremely concerning'

Close to 800 new COVID-19 cases in Alberta

Nov 5, 2020 | 4:56 PM

A full update of COVID-19 cases is unavailable today but the number Dr. Deena Hinshaw did share was stark.

“While I don’t have detailed case numbers today, I can tell you that about 800 new cases have been identified in the past 24 hours.”

She said nine hospitals have outbreaks, including Chinook Regional Hospital in Lethbridge, and that she’s concerned about the hospitalization numbers in Edmonton and Calgary.

“We must protect our health system by reducing community transmission. The fact that we are now reporting 800 new cases is extremely concerning,” said the chief medical officer of health. “Unless our numbers decline dramatically in the next few days, we will have to consider additional measures to bring COVID numbers down in order to protect our health system.”

She said the rising cases mean the measures introduced 10 days ago are not having enough of an effect and that in about seven to 10 days hospital numbers will rise further, further impacting care for Albertans with other issues.

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“One significant concern I have is around the high proportion of active cases being identified who attended work or social events while symptomatic,” Hinshaw said.

She said in Edmonton nine per cent of active cases went to work while symptomatic, and eight per cent went to retail or service businesses and eight per cent went to social gatherings while symptomatic.

In Calgary, 11 per cent went to work, nine per cent travelled and seven per cent attended a social gathering.

“I am calling on Albertans to please stop all activities if you have any symptoms,” other than getting tested or seeking health care.

She acknowledged the inconvenience and it can create tough choices for some. She also asked employers to recognize the difficulties faced by employees.

Hinshaw said social gatherings are driving the spread of the virus.

“By the number one driver of new cases we are seeing is exposure in households and private gatherings,” she said, adding about 40 per cent of active cases in Calgary and Edmonton were exposed by one of those two ways.

She is also concerned by the number of unknown exposures.

She said until more contact tracers can be hired and trained, efforts in contact tracing will be focused on high priority settings only.

“We need to change the trend in this province,” Hinshaw said, adding that rising numbers outside Calgary and Edmonton are a worry as 46 municipalities are on “watch.”

A technical issue in the reporting system is delaying the reporting of detailed case numbers.

Hinshaw said that as part of the usual quality assurance process, internal discrepancies were discovered that she felt needed to be addressed so she could feel comfortable presenting the data. A detailed update for both days will be presented tomorrow.

Saskatchewan reported 129 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, four in the South Zones.

In a release, the province says “The Roy Romanow Provincial Laboratory experienced technical difficulties Tuesday with the validation of COVID-19 tests, resulting in lower than expected case numbers reported yesterday (November 4). Following the validation of these samples, nine positive results were identified. Due to the timing of the reporting of laboratory results, these nine cases will be counted in November 6 case numbers.”

Saskatchewan has a total of 3,536 cases, 877 considered active. There are 2,634 recovered cases and there have been 25 COVID-19 deaths in the province.