‘COVID will not go away’: Hinshaw says response will need to shift

“COVID will not go away,” said the chief medical officer of health. “There will continue to be impacts on our acute care systems that will rise and fall with seasonality and new variants that may emerge. We can not prevent all negative outcomes from COVID and we must be ready to respond to new information.”

She said it’s still important to find balance between the harms of COVID and the harms of measures to protect against an overwhelming surge of severe outcomes.

The change, she said, will take time and we need to continue monitoring sever impacts and any changes to the virus.

“But we cannot continue to use restrictions in the long-term once the risk of system overwhlem has passed,” said Hinshaw.

She also said data is indicating that we are likely beginning to turn a corner with this fifth wave.

There are now 1,584 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 112 of which are in ICU, and 3,608 deaths.

An AHS spokesperson told CHAT News Tuesday that there are currently 86 COVID-19 positive inpatients in the South Zone with 5 of those in the ICU. There are 28 inpatients at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital with three COVID-19 positive patients in the ICU.

Chinook Regional Hospital has 39 inpatients with two in the ICU. Brooks Health Centre has five inpatients; Cardston Health Centre has four; Pincher Creek Health Centre and Taber Health Centre have two each; and Bow Island Health Centre has one.

There are 660 confirmed active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat on Thursday.

Medicine Hat has had 6,444 confirmed total cases – the 660 active, 5,702 recovered and there have been 82 deaths.

There are 36 new confirmed cases in the city and 55 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, 78.1 per cent have received one dose of vaccine, 73.6 per cent have received two doses and 33.1 per cent have received three doses.

There are 34,879 known active cases in the province, up two in the past 24 hours, and 463,860 recovered cases in the province, up 3,353.

There have been 24,590 cases of the Omicron variant identified in Alberta, the same as Wednesday. Of those, 934 cases are in the South Zone.

Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 501,347.

There are 2,370 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 7,338 tests in the past 24 hours.

The positivity rate is today is about 32.3 per cent.

Alberta has administered 8,335,233 doses of vaccine at the latest update.

In the last seven days, COVID was the primary or a contributing factor in 62.9 per cent of non-ICU hospitalizations and 80.6 per cent of ICU admissions.

Hinshaw also announced a change to quarantine requirements for some Albertans. The time asymptomatic, unvaccinated, household close contacts of confirmed cases is being lowered to align with other parts of Canada.

“Starting today we recommend that these individuals stay home for 10 days after exposure instead of the current recommendation of 14 days,” she said.

She said the move aligns with data showing the incubation period for Omicron is shorter than previous variants.

She said continued to urge vaccines and booster doses for everyone, even those who have recovered from a previous case of COVID.

There is some protection gained from previous infection but it’s not known how long it lasts or how strong it is and that those previously infected and vaccinated have stronger immunity than those relying on recovery from previous infection alone.

Asked repeatedly about the potential easing of the Restrictions Exemption Program, Hinshaw wouldn’t say what her advice to the premier is. She also wouldn’t say when changes will be made and that that is the decision of elected officials.

Premier Jason Kenney has hinted in recent days that restrictions could be eased as early as next week.

Among new cases today, 26.5 per cent are unvaccinated, 4.3 per cent have had one dose, 43.1 have had two doses and 26.1 per cent have had three doses.

Among current hospitalizations, 29.5 per cent are unvaccinated, 4.9 per cent have had one dose, 41.1 per cent have had two doses and 24.6 per cent have had three doses.

Among Alberta’s total population, 80.5 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine and 74.6 per cent have received two doses 33.4 per cent have received three doses.

There are nine city outbreaks listed on the AHS website, including the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital and Medicine Hat Remand Centre. There are two listed outbreaks in Brooks and one in Oyen.

There are 2,741 known active cases and 28,308 recovered in the South Zone. The death total in the zone is at 318.

The province-wide reproductive value for the week of Jan. 24-30 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 Jan 10-16, the numbers were 0.88 in the province, 0.80 in Calgary Zone, 0.87 in Edmonton Zone and 1.03 in the rest of Alberta.

Cypress County has totaled 1,078 confirmed cases. There are 76 active cases, 996 recovered and six deaths. 70.4 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 66.4 per cent have two doses and 25.1 per cent have had three doses.

The County of Forty Mile has 395 total confirmed cases. There are 15 active cases, 375 recovered and there have been five deaths. 43.9 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 40.6 per cent have two doses and 15.8 per cent have had three doses.

The MD of Taber has 1,555 total confirmed cases — 111 active cases, 1,426 recovered and there have been 18 deaths. 51.2 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 48.2 per cent have two doses and 19.1 per cent have had three doses.

Special Areas No. 2 has 326 total confirmed cases – 15 active cases, 306 recovered and there have been five deaths.

Brooks has 2,528 total confirmed cases — 124 active cases and 2,376 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 28 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 605 confirmed cases — 30 active cases, 567 recovered and there have been eight deaths. 70.5 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 65.6 per cent have two doses and 22 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 988 total confirmed cases. There are 86 active cases, 897 are recovered cases and there have been five deaths in the county. 63.4 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 58.2 per cent have two doses and 21.9 per cent have had three doses.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 10,585 confirmed cases. There are 1,026 active cases, 9,484 recovered and there have been 75 deaths. Lethbridge County has 2,421 confirmed cases, 164 active cases, 2,236 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 Feb. 2, 2022.

Saskatchewan has a total of 120,745 cases, 10,271 considered active. There are 109,473 recovered cases and there have been 1,001 COVID-19 deaths in the province.

by Chris Brown

‘COVID will not go away’: Hinshaw says response will need to shift

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