By Chris Brown

Active cases up 15 in city

Alberta records highest new daily case count of third wave; new variant confirmed in returning interprovincial traveller

Apr 22, 2021 | 4:12 PM

The number of new cases of COVID-19 in Alberta today is the highest daily count of the third wave and is matches the heights of the second wave in early December.

The province’s top doctor also says the province has confirmed the first case of the B.1.617 variant first identified in Denmark and is the cause of rapidly rising case counts in India.

“This variant was in a returning inter-provincial traveller to Alberta and no additional cases of this variant have been detected to date,” said Dr. Deena Hinshaw.

Research is underway to learn more about the variant and health officials are monitoring it and its spread closely. As well, it is being called a variant of interest, not a variant of concern as the B.1.1.7 (U.K.), B.1.351 (South African) and P.1 (Brazilian) variants are.

There were 1,857 new cases of COVID-19 identified over the past 24 hours.

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“These are concerning numbers that underline the fact that we have work to do together,” said Hinshaw.

She added any final decisions have not been made about any potential additional restrictions to combat the spread of cases in the province.

Hospitalizations have risen to 518, with 116 of those people in ICU. Hinshaw said it’s important to remember hospitalizations are a lagging indicator and those in hospital were likely first infected around two to three weeks ago.

“Given how high our leading indicators – growth rate, new cases and positivity rate – have been, we can expect to see this number (hospitalizations) grow in the coming days. We must bend this curve down to prevent these severe outcomes and the subsequent impact on our health-care system,” said Hinshaw.

Hinshaw also announced a change to the timing of second doses of vaccine for select groups.

Effective April 23, Albertans who have received solid organ or stem cell transplants, are currently undergoing specific immune compromising treatments such as chemotherapy and immunotherapy, or are being treated with an anti-CD20 monolocal antibody can book a second dose of vaccine 21 to 28 days after the first. Appointments can only be booked by calling 811.

Hinshaw also relayed to Albertans the role text messages play in contact tracing. It’s possible some people are not responding to a general first message asking them to accept an important notification from AHS because they think it may be a scam, she said.

“If you receive a text message asking if you consent to receiving an important message from AHS, please accept it. You will then receive another message with information specific to you, exposures you have had and instructions you need to protect those around you,” she said.

Hinshaw’s next update will be early next week.

There are 122 active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat on Thursday.

Medicine Hat now has had 764 total cases – the 122 active, 625 recovered and there have been 17 deaths.

There are 34 new cases in the city and 18 new recoveries since the last update Tuesday.

Across the province, there are 19,182 active cases, up 701 from Tuesday, and 155,851 recovered cases, up 2,849.

Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 177,087.

There have been 21,261 variant cases ID’d in the province, 1,326 new today. There are 1,068 in the South Zone.

11,418 active cases (59.5 per cent of total) have been identified as variants of concern.

There are 1,857 total new cases in the province today.

There are now 518 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 116 of which are in ICU, and 2,054 deaths.

The province completed 17,524 tests in the past 24 hours.

The positivity rate is about 10.7 per cent.

Alberta has administered 1,275,287 doses of vaccine at the latest update.

There are 9,697 cases in the South Zone. There are 970 active cases and 8,613 recovered. The death total in the zone is at 114.

An AHS spokesperson told CHAT News on Thursday that AHS South Zone currently has 29 COVID-19 positive individuals in hospital. There are 22 at Chinook Regional Hospital in Lethbridge, with five of those in the ICU. Medicine Hat Regional Hospital has seven inpatients, with two of those in the ICU.

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

Medicine Hat Public School Division has announced cases at three schools over the past 24 hours. Additional cases were identified at Crescent Heights High School and River Heights Elementary School late on Wednesday, as well as a case at Alexandra Middle School on Thursday. They are on Alert status.

Prairie Rose Public Schools announced a confirmed case connected to Bow Island Elementary School on Monday, adding to a growing list of Prairie Rose schools with cases.

Three positive cases of COVID-19 were connected to Irvine School over the weekend. These cases are in addition to one case connected to Irvine School on the previous weekend.

Positive COVID-19 cases Seven Persons 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 two weeks ago. The individual was confirmed last 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 1.09. It is 1.06 in Calgary Zone, 1.11 in Edmonton Zone and 1.10 in the rest of Alberta. These figures are updated each Monday.

Cypress County has totaled 210 cases – 40 active cases and the rest recovered.

The County of Forty Mile has 142 total cases. There are nine active cases, 130 recovered and there have been three deaths.

The MD of Taber has 472 total cases — 50 active cases, 416 recovered and there have been six deaths.

Special Areas No. 2 has 74 total cases – three active cases, 70 recovered and there has been one death.

Brooks has 1,383 total cases — 16 active cases and 1,353 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 14 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 176 cases — 11 active cases, 163 recovered and there have been two deaths.

The County of Warner has 252 total cases. There are 49 active cases, 200 are recovered cases and there have been three deaths in the county.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 3,956 cases. There are 449 active cases, 3,472 recovered and there have been 35 deaths. Lethbridge County has 895 cases, 129 active cases, 757 recovered and there have been nine deaths.

The figures on alberta.ca are “up-to-date as of end of day April 21, 2021.”

Read the full April 22 update from the province here.

Saskatchewan has a total of 39,137 cases, 2,505 considered active. There are 36,162 recovered cases and there have been 470 COVID-19 deaths in the province.

Saskatchewan has delivered 372,334 doses of vaccine.