By Chris Brown

14 new cases in city, 1,646 in province

Active COVID-19 cases up by 10 in Medicine Hat

Apr 15, 2021 | 3:43 PM

After announcing the highest new daily case count in more than four months, the province’s top doctor continued to urge Albertans to do what they can to stop the spread of COVID-19 in the province.

“As I’ve said before, we are seeing a sharp rise in cases among younger Albertans in this third wave along with all other age groups,” Dr. Deena Hinshaw said. “The best thing we can all do to reduce cases in schools and in all other settings is to stop this virus from spreading in our communities. We all need to help reduce transmission.”

The chief medical officer of health also sought to quell lingering fears about the AstraZeneca vaccine and the potential for blood clots. The Public health agency of Canada is calling them Vaccine-Induced Immune Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia (VITT).

She said VITT is treatable and encouraged everyone who gets the vaccine to be aware of the symptoms such as severe and persistent headaches or abdominal pain in the four weeks following vaccination.

She said the blood clots are rare, saying the 20.2 million doses given up to the end of March in the U.K resulted in only 79 blood-clotting events.

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“So far there has been one confirmed case in Canada, and none in Alberta,” Hinshaw said.

She said all Albertans aged 55-64 are eligible for the vaccine.

She said those Albertans “are at least 1,500 times more likely to be hospitalized from COVID-19 than experience VITT after getting AstraZeneca.”

“While not getting vaccinated may feel like a way to protect your health by avoiding the rare risk of a blood clot following vaccine, waiting can actually increase your risk of getting sick or worse,” said Hinshaw.

The first dose reduces infection by 60-70 per cent and hospitalizations by 80 per cent, including against the dominant B.1.1.7 variant.

There are 96 active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat on Thursday.

Medicine Hat now has had 695 total cases – the 96 active, 582 recovered and there have been 17 deaths.

There are 14 new cases in the city and four new recoveries today.

Across the province, there are 16,223 active cases, up 654 from Wednesday, and 147,920 recovered cases, up 987.

Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 166,177.

There have been 13,952 variant cases ID’d in the province, 1,020 new today. There are 738 in the South Zone.

8,682 active cases (53.5 per cent of total) have been identified as variants of concern.

There are 1,646 total new cases in the province today.

There are now 416 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 86 of which are in ICU, and 2,034 deaths.

The province completed 17,198 tests in the past 24 hours.

The positivity rate is about 9.5 per cent.

Alberta has administered 1,004,123 doses of vaccine at the latest update.

Hinshaw’s next update will be early next week.

Following Calgary school boards’ decision to move junior and senior high classes online for two weeks starting April 19, those conversations would start at the local level among schools and medical officer of health.

There are currently cases confirmed at or connected to five area schools.

She said that even after vaccination, public health measures such as wearing a mask and physical distancing are important to be followed.

Hinshaw followed that by saying the ability to have large summer events amid those public health restrictions will depend on vaccine uptake and bringing down the current rise of cases and pressure on the health system.

There are 9,174 cases in the South Zone. There are 930 active cases and 8,134 recovered. The death total in the zone is at 110.

An AHS spokesperson told CHAT News on Thursday that AHS South Zone currently has 29 COVID-19 positive individuals in hospital. There are 24 at Chinook Regional Hospital in Lethbridge, with five of those in the ICU. Medicine Hat Regional Hospital has three inpatients, including one in the ICU. The Cardston Health Centre and Taber Health Centre have one inpatient each.

St. Michael’s School remains on AHS Outbreak status after reporting five cases in late March.

Positive COVID-19 cases have been connected to Medicine Hat’s River Heights School and Seven Persons School and Irvine School in Cypress County.

Ecole Connaught School has confirmed two variant cases. The first case was identified on March 31, the second on April 3.

Sixty-nine students from Eagle Butte High School are quarantining after a positive case was confirmed at the school last week. The individual was confirmed this week to have a variant strain of the virus.

The website Support Our Students is tracking instances of cases in schools across the province.

The province-wide reproductive value from last week is 1.12. It is 1.08 in Calgary Zone, 1.18 in Edmonton Zone and 1.13 in the rest of Alberta. These figures are updated each Monday.

Cypress County has totaled 183 cases – 28 active cases and the rest recovered.

The County of Forty Mile has 134 total cases. There are six active cases, 125 recovered and there have been three deaths.

The MD of Taber has 446 total cases — 38 active cases, 402 recovered and there have been six deaths.

Special Areas No. 2 has 71 total cases – six active cases, 64 recovered and there has been one death.

Brooks has 1,373 total cases — six active cases and 1,353 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 14 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 172 cases — 10 active cases, 160 recovered and there have been two deaths.

The County of Warner has 222 total cases. There are 41 active cases, 178 are recovered cases and there have been three deaths in the county.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 3,726 cases. There are 482 active cases, 3,212 recovered and there have been 32 deaths. Lethbridge County has 829 cases, 128 active cases, 692 recovered and there have been nine deaths.

The figures on alberta.ca are “up-to-date as of end of day April 14, 2021.”

Read the full April 15 update from the province here.

Saskatchewan has a total of 37,384 cases, 2,599 considered active. There are 34,325 recovered cases and there have been 460 COVID-19 deaths in the province.

Saskatchewan has delivered 315,405 doses of vaccine.