By Chris Brown

1,469 COVID inpatients, 106 in ICU

Second COVID-19 death in as many days in Medicine Hat

Jan 27, 2022 | 4:18 PM

Alberta’s premier says there continues to be good news regarding the COVID situation in the province but also reason for caution.

Alberta recorded 14 COVID-19 deaths – one in Medicine Hat – and additional 51 people are in hospital with COVID-19 today.

Jason Kenney says the positivity rate and the total number active cases are coming down slowly, and wastewater data is trending down in 14 of the 18 communities being monitored.

Kenney said there are 106 current COVID ICU admissions, compared to 257 during the September peak of the Delta wave, but added there remains “real stress” in the health-care system across the province.

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He said that of the 106 COVID patients in ICU today, 28 per cent are incidental cases. Of the other 1,363 COVID patients in hospital, 40 per cent are incidental.

The premier said he wants to see the Restrictions Exemption Program end as soon as possible but now is not the right time with hospital numbers as high as they’ve been at any point during the pandemic.

Chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said Alberta is expanding PCR testing eligibility to children under the age of two, reasoning that it’s pragmatic since rapid tests are not currently licensed for use on children under the age of two.

On Wednesday, Alberta Health said it has detected three cases of the BA. 2 variant.

There are now 1,469 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 106 of which are in ICU, and 3,518 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.

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 600 confirmed active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat on Thursday.

Medicine Hat has had 6,126 confirmed total cases – the 600 active, 5,445 recovered and there have been 81 deaths, one new today and the second in as many days.

There are 69 new confirmed cases in the city and 31 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, 78 per cent have received one dose of vaccine, 73 per cent have received two doses and 31.9 per cent have received three doses.

There are 44,301 known active cases in the province, down 3,442 in the past 24 hours, and 436,581 recovered cases in the province, up 6,647.

There have been 22,946 cases of the Omicron variant identified in Alberta, up from 22,799 Wednesday. Of those, 814 cases are in the South Zone.

Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 484,400.

There are 3,218 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 9,352 tests in the past 24 hours.

The positivity rate is today is about 34.4 per cent.

Alberta has administered 8,238,242 doses of vaccine at the latest update.

Among new cases today, 23.4 per cent are unvaccinated, 5 per cent have had one dose, 47.4 have had two doses and 24.3 per cent have had three doses.

Among current hospitalizations, 29.9 per cent are unvaccinated, 5.2 per cent have had one dose, 43.3 per cent have had two doses and 21.7 per cent have had three doses.

Among Alberta’s total population, 80.2 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine and 74 per cent have received two doses 32.1 per cent have received three doses.

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

There are 2,563 known active cases and 27,032 recovered in the South Zone. The death total in the zone is at 308.

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 1,032 confirmed cases. There are 66 active cases, 960 recovered and six deaths. 70.3 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 66 per cent have two doses and 24.1 per cent have had three doses.

The County of Forty Mile has 388 total confirmed cases. There are 14 active cases, 369 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 15.2 per cent have had three doses.

The MD of Taber has 1,485 total confirmed cases — 77 active cases, 1,390 recovered and there have been 18 deaths. 51 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 47.7 per cent have two doses and 18.4 per cent have had three doses.

Special Areas No. 2 has 320 total confirmed cases – 13 active cases, 302 recovered and there have been five deaths.

Brooks has 2,479 total confirmed cases — 169 active cases and 2,284 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 26 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 589 confirmed cases — 27 active cases, 554 recovered and there have been eight deaths. 70.4 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 65.1 per cent have two doses and 21.1 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 926 total confirmed cases. There are 52 active cases, 869 are recovered cases and there have been five deaths in the county. 63.2 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 57.9 per cent have two doses and 21.3 per cent have had three doses.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 10,011 confirmed cases. There are 1,001 active cases, 8,940 recovered and there have been 70 deaths. Lethbridge County has 2,348 confirmed cases, 146 active cases, 2,181 recovered and there have been 21 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. 26, 2022.

Saskatchewan has a total of 113,003 cases, 12,386 considered active. There are 100,622 recovered cases and there have been 985 COVID-19 deaths in the province.