AHS ordered to drop mandatory staff COVID-19 vaccination policy

The mandatory vaccination policy was enacted late in 2021 as the Omicron variant raged across the province.

“Fortunately now we are at the tail-end of the Omicron wave, and with our high vaccination rates we’re in a very different situation,” he said.

Copping also announced that youth aged 12-17 who are at least five months removed from getting their second dose of COVID-19 vaccine will be eligible for a third dose as of March 14.

Moving forward, Alberta will invest $300 million over three years to add ICU capacity as the province emerges from the fifth wave of COVID-19.

The province will allocate $100 million for up to 50 new permanent ICU beds this year. The remaining money will be allocated for the next two years to keep them operational.

The beds will be spread across all health zones in Alberta, with further details to come.

Copping also said there are no plans to bring back PCR testing for the general public at present.

Chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said that as the world shifts to an endemic approach, it will not be easy for everyone.

“We need to assess the COVID risks for ourselves and our families and make the best decisions possible for our unique circumstances,” she said. “It’s critical that we respect the choices that people make and show patience and tolerance to those who are making different choices than we make for ourselves.”

She reiterated that vaccines are highly effective against hospitalization and severe outcomes.

“Long after restrictions are lifted, vaccination against COVID-19 will continue to be an important part of Albertans’ health and wellbeing,” she said.

There are now 1,106 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 77 of which are in ICU, and 3,979 deaths.

An AHS spokesperson told CHAT News Friday that there are currently 91 COVID-19 positive inpatients in the South Zone with four of those in the ICU. There are 27 inpatients at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital with one COVID-19 positive patient in the ICU.

Chinook Regional Hospital has 42 inpatients with three in the ICU. Brooks Health Centre has four inpatients; Taber Health Centre has three; Cardston Health Centre has two; Bassano Health Centre, Crowsnest Pass Health Centre, and Raymond Health Centre have one each.

There are 137 confirmed active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat on Tuesday.

Medicine Hat has had 6,996 confirmed total cases – the 137 active, 6,771 recovered and there have been 88 deaths.

There are nine new cases and 10 recovered cases 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, 78.4 per cent have received one dose of vaccine, 74.6 per cent have received two doses and 34.6 per cent have received three doses.

There are 7,149 known active cases in the province and 518,056 recovered cases.

There have been 37,766 cases of the Omicron variant identified in Alberta. Of those, 2,227 cases are in the South Zone.

Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 529,184.

There are 467 new cases confirmed in the province since Monday.

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

The province completed 2,202 tests since Monday.

The positivity rate for the period is about 21.2 per cent.

Alberta has administered 8,520,945 doses of vaccine at the latest update.

In the last seven days, COVID was the primary or a contributing factor in 69.1 per cent of non-ICU hospitalizations and 85.1 per cent of ICU admissions.

Among new cases today, 25.6 per cent are unvaccinated, 2.7 per cent have had one dose, 30.1 have had two doses and 41.7 per cent have had three doses.

Among current hospitalizations, 30.5 per cent are unvaccinated, 4.3 per cent have had one dose, 34.1 per cent have had two doses and 31.2 per cent have had three doses.

Among Alberta’s total population, 80.9 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine and 76.1 per cent have received two doses 35.6 per cent have received three doses.

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

There are 768 known active cases and 33,000 recovered in the South Zone. The death total in the zone is at 350.

The province-wide reproductive value for the week of Feb. 14-27 is 0.87. It is 0.84 in Calgary Zone, 0.88 in Edmonton Zone and 0.88 in the rest of Alberta.

At the last update from Jan. 31-Feb. 13, the numbers were 0.76 in the province, 0.72 in Calgary Zone, 0.78 in Edmonton Zone and 0.79 in the rest of Alberta.

Cypress County has totaled 1,152 confirmed cases. There are 23 active cases, 1,123 recovered and six deaths. 70.6 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 67.3 per cent have two doses and 26.8 per cent have had three doses.

The County of Forty Mile has 421 total confirmed cases. There are three active cases, 413 recovered and there have been five deaths. 44.1 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 41.3 per cent have two doses and 16.5 per cent have had three doses.

The MD of Taber has 1,641 total confirmed cases — 34 active cases, 1,588 recovered and there have been 19 deaths. 51.4 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 48.9 per cent have two doses and 20 per cent have had three doses.

Special Areas No. 2 has 344 total confirmed cases – five active cases, 334 recovered and there have been five deaths.

Brooks has 2,630 total confirmed cases — 13 active cases and 2,585 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 32 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 649 confirmed cases — seven active cases, 633 recovered and there have been nine deaths. 70.9 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 66.6 per cent have two doses and 24 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 1,081 total confirmed cases. There are 21 active cases, 1,052 are recovered cases and there have been seven deaths in the county. 63.5 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 59 per cent have two doses and 22.8 per cent have had three doses.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 11,653confirmed cases. There are 322 active cases, 11,242 recovered and there have been 87 deaths. Lethbridge County has 2,636 confirmed cases, 53 active cases, 2,561 recovered and there have been 22 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 March 7, 2022.

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

More to come…

by Chris Brown

AHS ordered to drop mandatory staff COVID-19 vaccination policy

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