Hospitalizations rising as COVID-19 daily case records continue to be broken

“With case counts far exceeding anything we have ever seen before, the sheer volume of cases means that daily hospitalizations are beginning to escalate,” said Hinshaw.

She said the actions Albertans take now are critical as it’s too soon to know how Omicron will impact the province. She said changes people make now will impact case counts and therefore hospitalizations.

Hinshaw said people need to think not just about the physical system, but the people who up the health-care system.

“Frontline health-care workers have experienced the trauma of repeated waves over the past two years, and each wave takes an additional toll. Our actions now will make a substantial difference to the resilience and capacity of our health-care system, not just in the next few weeks but in the long-term as burnout and fatigue are very real and will not be gone overnight.”

One of the deaths announced by Hinshaw at the Tuesday update was a child between the ages of five and nine years old with a complex medical history.

Premier Jason Kenney said that even a small percentage of a very large number of people requiring hospital care can put our health-care system under real pressure

“Today we are reporting more than 30,000 active cases, and that’s defined as people who have tested positive on a PCR test,” he said. “But we know the actual number is much higher with a positivity rate of 30 per cent. And that’s why we do expect to see hospitalizations rise in the weeks ahead.”

Saying we need to make use of every tool available to fight the fifth wave, Kenney appealed to the federal government to authorize the use of the Pfizer COVID antiviral pill, Paxlovid.

Kenney said it can be used for mild to moderate COVID-19 in those 12 years and older in a high risk of progression to a more serious situation like hospitalization.

There are 321 active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat on Tuesday and more than 30,000 active cases in the province

On Tuesday, the province reported almost a week’s worth of numbers in the first detailed update since Dec. 29

Medicine Hat has had 4,964 total cases – the 321 active, 4,565 recovered and there have been 78 deaths.

There are 213 new cases in the city and 27 new recoveries since the last full update of the provincial COVID dashboard on Dec. 29.

An AHS spokesperson told CHAT News Tuesday that there are currently 18 COVID-19 positive inpatients in the South Zone with three of those in the ICU. There are four inpatients at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital with one COVID-19 positive patient in the ICU.

Chinook Regional Hospital has nine inpatients with two in the ICU. Cardston Health Centre, Crowsnest Pass Health Centre and Pincher Creek Health Centre have one inpatient each.

There have been 10,432 cases of the Omicron variant identified in Alberta, up from 7,025 in the last update. Of those, 218 cases are in the South Zone.

Among Hatters five years old and over, 81.1 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine and 75.7 per cent have received two doses.

77.1 per cent of all Hatters have received at least one dose of vaccine at the latest update.

There are 34,276 active cases in the province, up 16,880 from the last update, and 341,776 recovered cases in the province, up 4,859.

Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 379,374.

There are 18,738 new cases in the province since the Dec. 29 update.

There are now 436 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 61 of which are in ICU, and 3,322 deaths.

The province completed 55,928 tests since the last update.

The positivity rate since then is about 33.5 per cent.

Alberta has administered 7,736,808 doses of vaccine at the latest update.

Kenney said the province wants to return in-person learning as soon as possible and is listening to the advice from child advocacy groups about prioritizing a safe return to classroom instruction.

The premier asked people to get vaccinated or get their booster shot as soon as possible, noting that 70 per cent of those in ICU are unvaccinated, and that 70 per cent comes from the 10 per cent of the population who are unvaccinated.

He also urged Albertans to limit interpersonal contacts and taking a rapid test when appropriate.

Kenney said more rapid test kits are on the way. About three million kits the province has procured will arrive each week until mid-January and about four million will be coming from the federal government.

Among new cases today, 16.5 per cent are unvaccinated, 1.6 per cent are partially vaccinated and 81.9 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Among current hospitalizations, 47 per cent are unvaccinated, 4.1 per cent are partially vaccinated and 48.9 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Province-wide, 84.4 per cent of Albertans five years old and up have received at least one dose of vaccine and 77.6 per cent have received two doses and 24.4 per cent have received three doses.

Among Alberta’s total population, 79.3 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine and 72.9 per cent have received two doses 22.9 per cent have received three doses.

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 none in the surrounding area.

There are 1,132 active cases and 23,270 recovered in the South Zone. The death total in the zone is at 290.

The province-wide reproductive value for the weeks of Nov. 29-Dec. 12 is 0.96. It is 0.90 in Calgary Zone, 0.99 in Edmonton Zone and 0.93 in the rest of Alberta.

It’s updated every two weeks. At the last update from Nov. 15-28, the numbers were 0.88 in the province, 0.90 in Calgary Zone, 0.95 in Edmonton Zone and 0.80 in the rest of Alberta.

Cypress County has totaled 903 cases. There are 28 active cases, 869 recovered and six deaths. 73.6 per cent of those five years old and up have at least one dose of vaccine, 68.8 have two doses.

The County of Forty Mile has 354 total cases. There are nine active cases, 340 recovered and there have been five deaths. 47.7 per cent of those five years old and up have at least one dose of vaccine, 44.2 have two doses

The MD of Taber has 1,340 total cases — 29 active cases, 1,293 recovered and there have been 18 deaths. 55 per cent of those five years old and up have at least one dose of vaccine, 51 have two doses

Special Areas No. 2 has 289 total cases – 14 active cases, 271 recovered and there have been three deaths.

Brooks has 2,138 total cases — 30 active cases and 2,084 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 24 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 537 cases — eight active cases, 521 recovered and there have been eight deaths. 74.3 per cent of those five years old and up have at least one dose of vaccine, 68.6 have two doses The Newell numbers include the city of Brooks and part of Special Areas No. 2.

The County of Warner has 819 total cases. There are 19 active cases, 796 are recovered cases and there have been four deaths in the county. 67.3 per cent of those five years old and up have at least one dose of vaccine, 61.3 have two doses

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 7,827 cases. There are 503 active cases, 7,262 recovered and there have been 62 deaths. Lethbridge County has 2,090 cases, 68 active cases, 2,002 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 Jan. 3, 2022.

Saskatchewan has a total of 87,167 cases, 4,062 considered active. There are 82,145 recovered cases and there have been 960 COVID-19 deaths in the province.

by Chris Brown

Hospitalizations rising as COVID-19 daily case records continue to be broken

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