Two more COVID-19 deaths in Medicine Hat; AHS working to boost health system capacity

Another $14 million will be provided for short-term staff increases in Home Care agencies and continuing care facilities, Shandro said.

“An increase in staffing will mean that we can move more patients home from the hospital when they are ready. And that’s better care for the patient because the hospital’s only the right place to get care as long as you really need to be there,” he said.

He added it’s better for the system because it frees up beds for the next patient who will need it.

AHS president and CEO Dr. Verna Yiu said the postponement of surgeries and procedures is also helping to free up capacity.

Shandro said there’s not an easy answer to when, if ever, will be the time to limit the movements of unvaccinated Albertans who are spreading the virus.

He added the province is working on a QR code and printable card to help the businesses that have made moves to bar unvaccinated people from their premises. He would not commit to a vaccine passport from the province.

He was non-committal about government-mandated vaccine passports or even whether or not they are on the table.

Shandro also said modelling shows the peak coming in the next few weeks.

There are 586 active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat on Thursday

Medicine Hat has had 2,843 total cases – the 586 active, 2,217 recovered and there have been 40 deaths, two more today.

There have been nine COVID-19 deaths in Medicine Hat since Friday.

There are 48 new cases in the city in the past 24 hours and 44 new recoveries.

An AHS spokesperson told CHAT News on Thursday that there are currently 67 COVID-19 positive inpatients in the South Zone with 19 of those in the ICU. There are 30 COVID-19 positive inpatients at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital with nine of those in the ICU.

MHRH has 10 ICU beds, but Medicine Hat physician Paul Parks has said they don’t have the people to man them all as they did in previous waves of the pandemic.

Chinook Regional Hospital has 29 positive inpatients with 10 of those in the ICU. The Cardston Health Centre has five inpatients, while the Pincher Creek Health Centre has one and Brooks Health Centre has two.

Among Hatters 12 and over, 73.7 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine and 66.6 per cent are fully vaccinated.

64 per cent of all Hatters have received at least one dose of vaccine at the latest update and 57.8 per cent of Hatters are fully vaccinated.

There are 15,977 active cases in the province, up 359 from Wednesday, and 246,153 recovered cases in the province, up 1,142.

Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 264,564.

There are 1,510 new cases in the province in the past 24 hours, and 764 more variant of concern cases have been identified.

There are now 679 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 154 of which are in ICU, and 2,434 deaths.

The province completed 13,796 tests in the past 24 hours.

The positivity rate is about 11 per cent.

Alberta has administered 5,626,056 doses of vaccine at the latest update.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw said the spike in recent deaths province-wide reinforces how seriously we need to take the situation.

“It is to prevent serious outcomes like these that immunizations are so important,” said the chief medical officer of health.

Hinshaw added that even though some fully immunized Albertans are among those deaths vaccines are still making a profound impact.

She said no vaccine is perfect but they do offer a “high level of protection against infection and an even higher level of protection against severe outcomes.”

She said in the last four months 84 per cent of all COVID-19 deaths have been in people who were not fully immunized. She said in the past two months no fully vaccinated Albertan under the age of 60 has died.

“Simply put, we need more Albertans to get immunized,” she said.

She re-iterated that indoor masking remains mandatory, and extends to public transit, taxis and ride shares, and that isolation is still legally required for those who have COVID-19 symptoms or have tested positive. Restaurants and bars must stop liquor sales at 10 p.m.

As well, the end of testing, tracing and isolation has officially been indefinitely postponed, Hinshaw says. Those public health measures were to end on Sept. 27.

She said the end of universal contact tracing in July was her decision and later said “clearly the move to endemic was too early.”

Yiu updated hospital capacity in Alberta. She said it is at 87 per cent today, which includes 231 in ICU, 70 per cent of those with COVID. Without the surge beds that have been created capacity would be at 130 per cent.

Among new cases today, 71.3 per cent are unvaccinated, 7.2 per cent are partially vaccinated and 21.5 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Among current hospitalizations, 73.5 per cent are unvaccinated, 5 per cent are partially vaccinated and 21.5 per cent are fully vaccinated.

The number of local outbreaks listed on AHS website has been rising across the city in the past weeks.

The city has the 11th-highest cases rate per 100,000 people at 860.3. The ID of Wood Buffalo has the highest rate at 13,287.6. There are 78 active cases among the small population of just 587 people.

Province-wide, 78.8 per cent of Albertans 12 years old and up have received at least one dose of vaccine and 70.8 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Among Alberta’s total population, 67 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine and 60.2 per cent are fully vaccinated.

There are 1,636 active cases and 14,250 recovered in the South Zone. The death total in the zone is at 165.

The province-wide reproductive value for the week of Aug. 30-Sept. 5 is 1.12. It is 1.14 in Calgary Zone, 1.09 in Edmonton Zone and 1.12 in the rest of Alberta.

It’s updated every two weeks. At the last update from Aug. 16-22 the numbers were 1.19 in the province, 1.05 in Calgary Zone, 1.32 in Edmonton Zone and 1.22 in the rest of Alberta.

Cypress County has totaled 579 cases. There are 114 active cases, 464 recovered and one death. The latest one-dose vaccination rate for all ages is 55.3 per cent, the two-dose rate is 49. The county has the seventh-highest case rate per 100,000 people at 1,009.

The County of Forty Mile has 181 total cases. There are nine active cases, 169 recovered and there have been three deaths. The latest one-dose vaccination rate for all ages is 32 per cent, the two-dose rate is 28.5.

The MD of Taber has 756 total cases — 141 active cases, 609 recovered and there have been six deaths. The latest one-dose vaccination rate for all ages is 39 per cent, the two-dose rate is 35.3.

Special Areas No. 2 has 138 total cases – 20 active cases, 117 recovered and there has been one death.

Brooks has 1,701 total cases — 96 active cases and 1,589 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 16 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 308 cases — 28 active cases, 276 recovered and there have been three deaths. The latest one-dose vaccination rate for all ages is 53.7 per cent, the two-dose rate is 47.5. The Newell numbers include the city of Brooks.

The County of Warner has 508 total cases. There are 27 active cases, 478 are recovered cases and there have been three deaths in the county. The latest one-dose vaccination rate for all ages is 49.3 per cent, the two-dose rate is 43.3.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 5,401 cases. There are 280 active cases, 5,080 recovered and there have been 40 deaths. Lethbridge County has 1,416 cases, 93 active cases, 1,309 recovered and there have been 14 deaths.

Not all the areas on the vaccination data map match the case count map.

The figures on alberta.ca are “up-to-date as of end of day Sept. 8, 2021.”

Saskatchewan has a total of 57,521 cases, 3,416 considered active. There are 53,489 recovered cases and there have been 616 COVID-19 deaths in the province.

by Chris Brown

Two more COVID-19 deaths in Medicine Hat; AHS working to boost health system capacity

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