By Chris Brown

Changes to rapid test program

One new COVID-19 death in Medicine Hat, 22 across province

Feb 10, 2022 | 4:09 PM

Supply chain issues are easing and Alberta is expanding and changing how it is distributing COVID-19 rapid test kits.

Health Minister Jason Copping says 633 pharmacies have signed up to the distribution program since last week, bringing the number of pharmacies participating to 1,453.

“We’re shipping another two million tests to the pharmacies this week and all pharmacies should have the stock by next week. Participating pharmacies will be added to the Blue Cross website as they receive their tests,” he says.

Copping says more than 2.5 million rapid tests sent to pharmacies and AHS locations in the province last week.

With the expansion of the pharmacy program, Alberta Health Services sites such as the Community Health Clinic on Dunmore Road will no longer distribute kits once their current supply is gone.

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Every Albertan is allowed one free test kit every 14 days as supply allows.

Copping says the number of cases is down two-thirds since the peak of the fifth wave last month and calls for everyone to respect each other’s boundaries as everyone has different risk tolerances.

Chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw announced that as of Feb. 16, fully immunized workers at continuing care centres will be allowed to work at multiple facilities once again.

On booster shots, Hinshaw said bookings will open Feb. 15 for those aged 12-17 years with underlying conditions such as diabetes and asthma as well as those in the First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities in the same age group. Immunocompromised people in the same age group will be eligible for a fourth shot.

Third-dose booking will also open Tuesday for kids aged 5-11 who have specific immunocompromising conditions as part of their primary series.

There are now 1,586 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 126 of which are in ICU, and 3,718 deaths.

An AHS spokesperson told CHAT News Tuesday that there are currently 87 COVID-19 positive inpatients in the South Zone with 12 of those in the ICU. There are 25 inpatients at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital with six COVID-19 positive patients in the ICU.

Chinook Regional Hospital has 43 inpatients with six in the ICU. Brooks Health Centre has seven inpatients; Bassano Health Centre, Cardston Health Centre, Pincher Creek Health Centre and Taber Health Centre have one each.

There are 505 confirmed active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat on Thursday.

Medicine Hat has had 6,672 confirmed total cases – the 505 active, 6,084 recovered and there have been 83 deaths, one new today.

There are 29 new confirmed cases in the city and 63 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, 78.2 per cent have received one dose of vaccine, 74 per cent have received two doses and 33.7 per cent have received three doses.

There are 25,339 known active cases in the province, down 1,557 in the past 24 hours, and 483,708 recovered cases in the province, up 2,898.

There have been 25,889 cases of the Omicron variant identified in Alberta, up from 25,807 on Wednesday. Of those, 1,031 cases are in the South Zone.

Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 512,765.

There are 1,363 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 4,986 tests in the past 24 hours.

The positivity rate is today is about 27.3 per cent.

Alberta has administered 8,401,303 doses of vaccine at the latest update.

In the last seven days, COVID was the primary or a contributing factor in 64 per cent of non-ICU hospitalizations and 81.1 per cent of ICU admissions.

Among new cases today, 29.7 per cent are unvaccinated, 3.6 per cent have had one dose, 36.7 have had two doses and 30 per cent have had three doses.

Among current hospitalizations, 39.4 per cent are unvaccinated, 5.1 per cent have had one dose, 37.2 per cent have had two doses and 27.3 per cent have had three doses.

Among Alberta’s total population, 80.6 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine and 75.1 per cent have received two doses 34.2 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 three listed outbreaks in Brooks and one in Oyen.

There are 2,269 known active cases and 29,792 recovered in the South Zone. The death total in the zone is at 328.

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 1,116 confirmed cases. There are 68 active cases, 1,042 recovered and six deaths. 70.5 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 66.6 per cent have two doses and 25.8 per cent have had three doses.

The County of Forty Mile has 409 total confirmed cases. There are 22 active cases, 382 recovered and there have been five deaths. 44 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 40.7 per cent have two doses and 16.1 per cent have had three doses.

The MD of Taber has 1,590 total confirmed cases — 102 active cases, 1,470 recovered and there have been 18 deaths. 51.2 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 48.3 per cent have two doses and 19.5 per cent have had three doses.

Special Areas No. 2 has 334 total confirmed cases – 14 active cases, 315 recovered and there have been five deaths.

Brooks has 2,578 total confirmed cases — 90 active cases and 2,458 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 30 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 630 confirmed cases — 41 active cases, 580 recovered and there have been nine deaths. 70.6 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 65.8 per cent have two doses and 22.6 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 1,025 total confirmed cases. There are 85 active cases, 935 are recovered cases and there have been five deaths in the county. 63.4 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 58.4 per cent have two doses and 22.2 per cent have had three doses.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 10,949 confirmed cases. There are 851 active cases, 10,018 recovered and there have been 80 deaths. Lethbridge County has 2,497 confirmed cases, 139 active cases, 2,337 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. 9, 2022.

Beginning this week, Saskatchewan is only updating its data on Thursdays. At the last update on Monday, Saskatchewan had a total of 123,258 cases, 9,223 considered active. There are 113,023 recovered cases and there have been 1,012 COVID-19 deaths in the province.