By Chris Brown

Five new cases in city, 240 in province

Hinshaw: No new Omicron variant cases found in Alberta

Dec 7, 2021 | 3:57 PM

Alberta’s chief medical officer of health says there is no change today in the number of Omicron variant cases but expects that won’t be the case for long.

“Given our current aggressive testing program, it is likely we will continue to detect more cases and respond to them as we have to date,” said Dr. Deena Hinshaw at her update today.

She later said that while we are still learning about the Omicron variant’s transmissibility and severity, this is not the first time a variant of concern has emerged in Alberta and it won’t be the last.

“We will not stop transmission. Our goal is to slow initial spread to give us more time to learn about the variant,” she said.

Hinshaw said news of a new variant is not welcome news to Albertans, but sounded a positive note based on previous experiences and all the information about Omicron currently available.

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“I am confident that vaccines and our tried and true routines will continue to help us protect one another against COVID-19.”

Hinshaw says they are watching Omicron and its spread closely and that no decisions have been made about potential restrictions during the holidays.

There are 64 active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat on Tuesday.

Medicine Hat has had 4,600 total cases – the 64 active, 4,458 recovered and there have been 78 deaths.

There are five new cases in the city in the past 24 hours and 13 new recoveries.

An AHS spokesperson told CHAT News Tuesday that there are currently 29 COVID-19 positive inpatients in the South Zone with four of those in the ICU. There are six inpatients at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital with no COVID-19 positive patients in the ICU.

Chinook Regional Hospital has 16 inpatients with four in the ICU. Cardston Health Centre and Pincher Creek Health Centre have two inpatients each, and Big Country Hospital has one.

Among Hatters five years old and over, 79.6 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine and 74.6 per cent are fully vaccinated.

75.6 per cent of all Hatters have received at least one dose of vaccine at the latest update and 70.9 per cent of Hatters are fully vaccinated.

There are 4,105 active cases in the province, down 169 from Monday, and 330,047 recovered cases in the province, up 504.

Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 337,420.

There are 240 new cases in the province in the past 24 hours.

There are now 373 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 76 of which are in ICU, and 3,268 deaths.

The province completed 5,478 tests in the past 24 hours.

The positivity rate is about 4.4 per cent.

Alberta has administered 7,028,981 doses of vaccine at the latest update.

Medicine Hat is one of 15 communities that are part of a study on COVID wastewater testing in the province. It involves taking samples from treatment plants and running lab tests to look for evidence of the virus.

Hinshaw said that allows the province to monitor the prevalence of COVID-19 in a given area and acts as a type of early warning system. She said the amount of virus detected in wastewater has been low and stable across the province since November, with only an occasional spike in some communities.

A website will be launched later this week for people interested.

She said mitigation strategies are still in place in schools, including mandatory masking for students in Grades 4-12 and staff in all schools and child care settings and recommended masking for students in Kindergarten to Grade 3. Cohorting and daily screening are also used and anyone with symptoms must isolate and be tested through AHS

The province’s top doctor also urged people to get booster shots if eligible, and that as of Monday all Albertans 60 and older who are six months from their second dose are eligible.

Among new cases today, 38.5 per cent are unvaccinated, 3.7 per cent are partially vaccinated and 57.8 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Among current hospitalizations, 63.3 per cent are unvaccinated, 3.3 per cent are partially vaccinated and 32.4 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Province-wide, 82.3 per cent of Albertans five years old and up have received at least one dose of vaccine and 76.5 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Among Alberta’s total population, 77.3 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine and 71.9 per cent are fully vaccinated.

There are no local outbreaks listed on AHS website.

There are no local schools on Outbreak status. One school in Medicine Hat is on Alert status, and there are five in the surrounding area.

There are 273 active cases and 22,762 recovered in the South Zone. The death total in the zone is at 289.

The province-wide reproductive value for the week of Nov. 15-28 is 0.88. It is 0.90 in Calgary Zone, 0.95 in Edmonton Zone and 0.80 in the rest of Alberta.

It’s updated every two weeks. At the last update from Nov. 1-14 the numbers were 0.92 in the province, 1.00 in Calgary Zone, 0.92 in Edmonton Zone and 0.87 in the rest of Alberta.

Cypress County has totaled 865 cases. There are seven active cases, 852 recovered and six deaths. The latest one-dose vaccination rate for all ages is 68.2 per cent, the two-dose rate is 63.8.

The County of Forty Mile has 345 total cases. There are two active cases, 338 recovered and there have been five deaths. The latest one-dose vaccination rate for all ages is 41.9 per cent, the two-dose rate is 38.2.

The MD of Taber has 1,303 total cases — 16 active cases, 1,270 recovered and there have been 17 deaths. The latest one-dose vaccination rate for all ages is 49.3 per cent, the two-dose rate is 45.5.

Special Areas No. 2 has 268 total cases – 15 active cases, 250 recovered and there have been three deaths.

Brooks has 2,102 total cases — five active cases and 2,073 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 24 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 516 cases — 12 active cases, 496 recovered and there have been eight deaths. The latest one-dose vaccination rate for all ages is 67.8 per cent, the two-dose rate is 62.8. The Newell numbers include the city of Brooks and part of Special Areas No. 2.

The County of Warner has 794 total cases. There are 10 active cases, 780 are recovered cases and there have been four deaths in the county. The latest one-dose vaccination rate for all ages is 60.6 per cent, the two-dose rate is 55.4.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 7,226 cases. There are 95 active cases, 7,069 recovered and there have been 62 deaths. Lethbridge County has 1,998 cases, 31 active cases, 1,947 recovered and there have been 19 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 Dec. 6, 2021.”

Saskatchewan has a total of 81,462 cases, 613 considered active. There are 79,915 recovered cases and there have been 934 COVID-19 deaths in the province.