Kenney: Alberta may be past peak of Omicron wave, new high for hospitalizations

Kenney also said there’s been evidence of stabilization and decline in the positivity rates, from 41 per cent one week ago to 33 per cent for yesterday.

“We are now exactly five weeks … from what we could define as the onset of the Omicron wave in Alberta,” said the premier. “So if the virus, if the variant performs in Alberta like has in jurisdictions all around the world we can reasonably expect that we may now be on the beginning of the downslope of transmission.”

Kenney cautioned there continues to be growing pressure on the health-care system, particularly in non-ICU beds. As well, Alberta set a new hospitalization record today at 1,131.

He said over the past week, 45 per cent of the non-ICU hospital patients are incidental cases, about 40 per cent were admitted primarily because of COVID. For the rest, COVID was a contributing factor.

No matter why they are in hospital, once they become a COVID case they require extra care and treatment protocols, adding to the pressure on hospitals.

There are now 1,131 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 108 of which are in ICU, and 3,421 deaths.

An AHS spokesperson told CHAT News Tuesday that there are currently 34 COVID-19 positive inpatients in the South Zone with seven of those in the ICU. There are seven inpatients at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital with three COVID-19 positive patients in the ICU.

Chinook Regional Hospital has 22 inpatients with four in the ICU. Brooks Health Centre has two inpatients; and Cardston Health Centre has one.

There are 581 confirmed active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat on Thursday.

Medicine Hat has had 5,723 total cases – the 581 active, 5,063 recovered and there have been 79 deaths.

There are 43 new cases in the city and 62 new recoveries in the past 24 hours.

With the province limiting testing in the fifth wave, these confirmed cases do not accurately reflect the number of cases in the community.

Among all Medicine Hat residents, 77.7 per cent have received one dose of vaccine, 72.6 per cent have received two doses and 30.3 per cent have received three doses.

There are 64,519 known active cases in the province, down 3,015 in the past 24 hours, and 395,084 recovered cases in the province, up 6,534.

There have been 22,078 cases of the Omicron variant identified in Alberta, up from 21,659 Wednesday. Of those, 771 cases are in the South Zone.

Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 463,024.

There are 3,527 new cases confirmed in the province in the past 24 hours.

Again these are only the confirmed cases and do not accurately reflect the number of cases in the province.

The province completed 11,041 tests in the past 24 hours.

The positivity rate is about 31.9 per cent.

Alberta has administered 8,105,371 doses of vaccine at the latest update.

Kenney also introduced a “community response plan” that will include virtual call-in lines to help those who have mild and moderate symptoms manage COVID-19 at home.

Alternate team-based care models are being implemented across the province as necessary, and existing beds are being allocated for COVID-19 care and additional beds are being opened in some locations as needed. So far that is limited to Edmonton and Calgary.

The premier also said he expects eight million rapid tests this week and next from the supply Alberta ordered and about another million from the federal government’s order. They will go to priority groups and it will “be a while” until they are available on a large scale for the general population.

Alberta Health Services president and CEO Dr. Verna Yiu said there are signs that ICUs can expect to see more patients in the coming weeks.

She also said recent surges in hospitalizations and health-care workers becoming sick and needing to quarantine has the health-care system facing yet another serious challenge.

“I want you to know though that I have every confidence that we can meet this challenge,” Yiu said.

She added the number of ICU COVID patients is up 18 per cent over the past week.

When it comes to hospitalizations, there has been an increase in all age groups, including children. Chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw says the sheer volume of cases in the province is the reason why more kids are needing care right now.

Among new cases today, 20.6 per cent are unvaccinated, 4.9 per cent have had one dose, 55.4 have had two doses and 19.1 per cent have had three doses.

Among current hospitalizations, 32.8 per cent are unvaccinated, 4.9 per cent have had one dose, 40.9 have had two doses and 20.4 per cent have had three doses.

Among Alberta’s total population, 79.9 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine and 73.4 per cent have received two doses 30.2 per cent have received three doses.

There are four city outbreaks listed on AHS website, two in Brooks and one in Oyen.

There are 2,937 known active cases and 25,166 recovered in the South Zone. The death total in the zone is at 298.

The province-wide reproductive value for the week of Jan. 10-16 is 1.00. It is 1.04 in Calgary Zone, 0.96 in Edmonton Zone and 0.98 in the rest of Alberta.

At the last update from Dec. 27-Jan. 2, the numbers were 1.35 in the province, 1.34 in Calgary Zone, 1.30 in Edmonton Zone and 1.54 in the rest of Alberta.

Cypress County has totaled 985 confirmed cases. There are 63 active cases, 916 recovered and six deaths. 70.1 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 65.7 per cent have two doses and 22.4 per cent have had three doses.

The County of Forty Mile has 379 total confirmed cases. There are 20 active cases, 354 recovered and there have been five deaths. 43.5 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 40.4 per cent have two doses and 14.2 per cent have had three doses.

The MD of Taber has 1,443 total confirmed cases — 80 active cases, 1,345 recovered and there have been 18 deaths. 50.8 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 47.3 per cent have two doses and 17.4 per cent have had three doses.

Special Areas No. 2 has 311 total confirmed cases – 17 active cases, 289 recovered and there have been three deaths.

Brooks has 2,396 total confirmed cases — 209 active cases and 2,163 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 24 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 575 confirmed cases — 31 active cases, 536 recovered and there have been eight deaths. 70.2 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 64.7 per cent have two doses and 19.4 per cent have had three doses. County of Newell vaccination numbers include Brooks and part of Special Areas No. 2.

The County of Warner has 891 total confirmed cases. There are 49 active cases, 837 are recovered cases and there have been five deaths in the county. 63.1 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 57.6 per cent have two doses and 20.4 per cent have had three doses.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 9,477 confirmed cases. There are 1,327 active cases, 8,083 recovered and there have been 67 deaths. Lethbridge County has 2,254 confirmed cases, 137 active cases, 2,097 recovered and there have been 20 deaths.

Again these are only the confirmed cases and do not accurately reflect the number of cases in the regions.

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. 19, 2022.

Saskatchewan has a total of 105,072 cases, 11,973 considered active. There are 92,138 recovered cases and there have been 961 COVID-19 deaths in the province.

by Chris Brown

Kenney: Alberta may be past peak of Omicron wave, new high for hospitalizations

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