Hospitals under strain as number of COVID inpatients keeps rising: Copping

He said once the province sees a sustained drop in cases, then we can expect to be on the downslope in admissions within a few weeks.

Over the last seven days, an average of 58.6 per cent of new, non-ICU admissions and 66.1 per cent of new ICU admissions are directly due to COVID-19, Copping said. The remainder are patients with COVID-19 where admission was unrelated to COVID-19 or it’s unclear.

There are now 1,377 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 111 of which are in ICU, and 3,483 deaths.

An AHS spokesperson told CHAT News Tuesday that there are currently 76 COVID-19 positive inpatients in the South Zone with 10 of those in the ICU. There are 20 inpatients at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital with four COVID-19 positive patients in the ICU.

The number of COVID inpatients in the city’s hospital is up seven from Friday, while there is one more COVID patient in the ICU.

Chinook Regional Hospital has 35 inpatients with six in the ICU. Brooks Health Centre has eight inpatients; Cardston Health Centre has three; Crowsnest Pass Health Centre has two; and Bassano Health Centre, Bow Island Health Centre, and Raymond Health Centre have one each.

There are 558 confirmed active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat on Tuesday.

Medicine Hat has had 5,997 confirmed total cases – the 558 active, 5,360 recovered and there have been 79 deaths.

There are 213 new confirmed cases in the city and 245 new recoveries since the last full update on Friday.

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, 77.9 per cent have received one dose of vaccine, 72.8 per cent have received two doses and 31.5 per cent have received three doses.

There are 51,157 known active cases in the province, down 10,458 since Friday, and 423,201 recovered cases in the province, up 21,629.

There have been 22,642 cases of the Omicron variant identified in Alberta, up from 22,158 Friday. Of those, 801 cases are in the South Zone.

Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 477,841.

There are 11,225 new cases confirmed in the province since Friday.

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

The province completed 29,673 tests since Friday.

The positivity rate is today is about 40.5 per cent.

Alberta has administered 8,201,752 doses of vaccine at the latest update.

Albertans will also soon have another tool in the fight against COVID-19.

Copping announced that Paxlovid, an at-home prescription treatment, will be available in the province starting Jan. 31. Initially, 3,200 courses of treatment will be available to help keep eligible people with mild to moderate symptoms from experiencing severe illness and ending up in hospital.

Staff is currently developing implementation guidance for clinicians and pharmacists and It will only be available to those who need it the most.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw said those include “immunocompromised individuals age 18 and over, regardless of vaccination status, who have received transplants, who are cancer patients and have received chemotherapy or another immunosuppressive treatment in the past two years, or who have an inflammatory condition that they are being treated for such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus or inflammatory bowel disease.”

It will also be a possible option for unvaccinated Albertans over the age of 65 or those 18 and older with a pre-existing health condition such as diabetes, obesity, chronic kidney disease or obstructive pulmonary disease or congestive heart failure, said the chief medical officer of health.

She added people must have a confirmed case of COVID and be within five days of the onset of symptoms. An initial evaluation from HealthLink must also be completed.

She asked people not to call pharmacies or physicians to ask for a prescription for Paxlovid and stressed it is not a substitute for vaccination.

Hinshaw also corrected a statement from last week when she said there were no hospitalizations in the 5-11 age group among those with one dose of vaccine. Today, she said six people in that age group who have had one dose have been hospitalized. Comparatively, 75 kids in that age group with no vaccine have been hospitalized over past four months.

Alberta has also received about 500,000 additional doses of the Pfizer vaccine,” Copping said.

Among new cases today, 59 per cent are unvaccinated, 2.6 per cent have had one dose, 28.6 have had two doses and 9.8 per cent have had three doses.

Among current hospitalizations, 62.8 per cent are unvaccinated, 2.4 per cent have had one dose, 22.9 have had two doses and 12 per cent have had three doses.

Among Alberta’s total population, 80.2 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine and 73.8 per cent have received two doses 31.6 per cent have received three doses.

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

There are 2,634 known active cases and 26,473 recovered in the South Zone. The death total in the zone is at 303.

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 1,016 confirmed cases. There are 62 active cases, 948 recovered and six deaths. 70.3 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 65.8 per cent have two doses and 23.7 per cent have had three doses.

The County of Forty Mile has 385 total confirmed cases. There are 13 active cases, 367 recovered and there have been five deaths. 43.6 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 40.5 per cent have two doses and 14.8 per cent have had three doses.

The MD of Taber has 1,466 total confirmed cases — 72 active cases, 1,376 recovered and there have been 18 deaths. 51 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 47.6 per cent have two doses and 18.1 per cent have had three doses.

Special Areas No. 2 has 315 total confirmed cases – 12 active cases, 298 recovered and there have been five deaths.

Brooks has 2,458 total confirmed cases — 192 active cases and 2,241 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 25 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 582 confirmed cases — 25 active cases, 549 recovered and there have been eight deaths. 70.3 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 65 per cent have two doses and 20.8 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 916 total confirmed cases. There are 53 active cases, 858 are recovered cases and there have been five deaths in the county. 63.2 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 57.8 per cent have two doses and 21 per cent have had three doses.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 9,836 confirmed cases. There are 1,104 active cases, 8,663 recovered and there have been 69 deaths. Lethbridge County has 2,316 confirmed cases, 145 active cases, 2,151 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. 24, 2022.

Saskatchewan has a total of 111,447 cases, 12,652 considered active. There are 97,818 recovered cases and there have been 977 COVID-19 deaths in the province.

by Chris Brown

Hospitals under strain as number of COVID inpatients keeps rising: Copping

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