Hinshaw: All provinces shifting from pandemic to endemic

“After nearly two years of requirements to modify the way we have lived, worked and socialized to help reduce transmission of the virus and help protect each other, it’s going to take time and effort to adjust away from mandates and towards personal risk assessments and actions,” said Hinshaw.

She said for some this transition will be quick and easy while for others it will be much more challenging. She said there is no one right way to respond to the changes.

Health Minister Jason Copping says wastewater data from Edmonton, Calgary and Banff clearly shows that the Omicron wave is past its peak in Alberta.

He says that doesn’t mean they will stay low, or that another wave and variant might not appear.

“It can come in again. In fact, we should assume it will,” Copping said at the Tuesday COVID update.

Wastewater figures are also declining in Medicine Hat. The latest statistics for Feb. 10 show a weekly average of 111.44 genomic copies per 100 ml of wastewater, down from 266.24 on Jan. 31.

Image from covid-tracker.chi-csm.ca/

Wastewater data is a leading indicator, said Copping, but the risk the province must manage and is basing easing restrictions on is the burden on the health-care system.

He said the province is prepared for an increase in hospitalizations and “there is currently no basis to expect that wave of hospitalizations to happen.”

Copping said the number of COVID patients in hospitals has been on a downward trend since Feb. 7 and should continue to drop as daily admissions have begun to drop.

There are now 1,538 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 123 of which are in ICU, and 3,790 deaths.

An AHS spokesperson told CHAT News Tuesday that there are currently 89 COVID-19 positive inpatients in the South Zone with seven of those in the ICU. There are 27 inpatients at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital with two COVID-19 positive patients in the ICU.

Chinook Regional Hospital has 41 inpatients with five in the ICU. Brooks Health Centre, Cardston Health Centre, Pincher Creek Health Centre and Taber Health Centre have three inpatients each; Bassano Health Centre and Big Country Hospital have one each.

There are 399 confirmed active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat on Tuesday.

Medicine Hat has had 6,774 confirmed total cases – the 399 active, 6,291 recovered and there have been 84 deaths.

There are 21 new confirmed cases in the city and 45 new recoveries reported today.

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, 74.1 per cent have received two doses and 33.9 per cent have received three doses.

There are 19,050 known active cases in the province, down 1,815 in the past 24 hours, and 494,810 recovered cases in the province, up 2,639.

There have been 27,517 cases of the Omicron variant identified in Alberta, up from 26,265 on Monday. Of those, 1,147 cases are in the South Zone.

Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 517,650.

There are 838 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 2,499 tests in the past 24 hours.

The positivity rate is today is about 33.5 per cent.

Alberta has administered 8,438,043 doses of vaccine at the latest update.

In the last seven days, COVID was the primary or a contributing factor in 70.5 per cent of non-ICU hospitalizations and 84.5 per cent of ICU admissions.

Hinshaw announced she will be taking two weeks off, leaving the health minister to provide regular updates. There will be no COVID media update on Thursday.

She also announced anyone 55 years or older who is unvaccinated or has had one dose of vaccine is now eligible for Paxlovid or Sotrovimab treatment.

Among new cases today, 33.5 per cent are unvaccinated, 1.7 per cent have had one dose, 33.5 have had two doses and 31.3 per cent have had three doses.

Among current hospitalizations, 30.4 per cent are unvaccinated, 5.4 per cent have had one dose, 36.7 per cent have had two doses and 27.5 per cent have had three doses.

Among Alberta’s total population, 80.7 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine and 75.4 per cent have received two doses 34.7 per cent have received three doses.

There are 11 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, three in Taber and two in Oyen.

There are 1,808 known active cases and 30,737 recovered in the South Zone. The death total in the zone is at 333.

The province-wide reproductive value for the week of Jan. 31-Feb. 13 is 0.76. It is 0.72 in Calgary Zone, 0.78 in Edmonton Zone and 0.79 in the rest of Alberta.

At the last update from Jan. 24-30, the numbers were 1.00 in the province, 1.04 in Calgary Zone, 0.96 in Edmonton Zone and 0.98 in the rest of Alberta.

Cypress County has totaled 1,123 confirmed cases. There are 48 active cases, 1,069 recovered and six deaths. 70.5 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 66.8 per cent have two doses and 26.1 per cent have had three doses.

The County of Forty Mile has 413 total confirmed cases. There are 20 active cases, 388 recovered and there have been five deaths. 44 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 40.9 per cent have two doses and 16.2 per cent have had three doses.

The MD of Taber has 1,598 total confirmed cases — 59 active cases, 1,521 recovered and there have been 18 deaths. 51.3 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 48.5 per cent have two doses and 19.7 per cent have had three doses.

Special Areas No. 2 has 338 total confirmed cases – 15 active cases, 318 recovered and there have been five deaths.

Brooks has 2,598 total confirmed cases — 72 active cases and 2,496 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 30 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 639 confirmed cases — 40 active cases, 590 recovered and there have been nine deaths. 70.7 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 66.1 per cent have two doses and 23.1 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 1,042 total confirmed cases. There are 66 active cases, 970 are recovered cases and there have been five deaths in the county. 63.5 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 58.6 per cent have two doses and 22.5 per cent have had three doses.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 11,146 confirmed cases. There are 694 active cases, 10,370 recovered and there have been 82 deaths. Lethbridge County has 2,544 confirmed cases, 126 active cases, 2,397 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. 14, 2022.

Beginning on Feb. 7, Saskatchewan is only updating its data on Thursdays. Data can be found here.

by Chris Brown

Hinshaw: All provinces shifting from pandemic to endemic

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