‘Wait and see’: Alberta seeing increase in positivity rate, wastewater data

“What remains to be seen is how big the impact may be and then what the impact will be on our health-care system,” he said at the province’s weekly Wednesday update.

Copping said it’s not unexpected to see a slight increase given the lifting of public health measures.

“There are simply more opportunities for the virus to spread as more and more people work from the office, return to travelling, socialize is various settings and resume their regular routines.”

He said that’s especially true as BA.2 Omicron subvariant is the dominant strain in Alberta and is known to be more transmissible than BA.1. He said the provincial lab has found around 70 per cent of all positive PCR test samples are BA.2, but there is no indication of it causing more severe illness.

He said the virus still with us, and promoted vaccination and encouraged people to make decisions for themselves that best suit their unique situation and risk tolerance.

The province is increasing the availability of Paxlovid, the first COVID-19 treatment approved by Health Canada that can be taken orally at home. Copping said any interested pharmacy in the province will be able to order Paxlovid treatments and that those providing Paxlovid in their communities can be found online.

Albertans who meet eligibility criteria must call Health Link at 1-844-343-0971. Health Link staff will ask screening questions to confirm eligibility and arrange for next steps. Paxlovid must be started within five days of the onset of COVID-19 symptoms.

Albertans are asked to not call pharmacies or physician offices directly.

Copping said chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw is taking time off this week but would return for next week’s update.

Beginning on March 23, the province is reporting the seven-day new case rate and the number of new cases in the last seven days for municipalities instead of reporting their active cases. Active cases are also no longer being reported province-wide.

Medicine Hat’s seven-day new case rate per 100,000 people is 148.3 on 101 new cases in the past seven days. The previous period’s rate was 102.8 and there were 70 new cases.

That places the city in the “high” classification for seven-day case rate. There are four classifications – highest, high, medium and low.

With the province limiting testing in the fifth wave and since, these confirmed cases do not accurately reflect the number of cases in the community.

The most recent wastewater surveillance data for Medicine Hat, from March 28, shows the city’s weekly average of genomic copies (gc) per one millilitre (mL) of wastewater is 125.7. In the fifth wave it peaked at 266.2 on Jan. 31.

Among all Medicine Hat residents, 78.4 per cent have received one dose of vaccine, 74.8 per cent have received two doses and 35.1 per cent have received three doses.

A spokesperson for Alberta Health Services told CHAT News on Wednesday there are currently 83 COVID-19 positive inpatients in the South Zone with seven of those in the ICU. There are 19 inpatients at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital with five COVID-19 positive patients in the ICU.

Chinook Regional Hospital has 43 inpatients with two in the ICU. Cardston Health Centre has six inpatients; Brooks Health Centre and Taber Health Centre have five each; Pincher Creek Health Centre has two; and Bow Island Health Centre, Crowsnest Pass Health Centre, and Raymond Health Centre have one each.

There are now 964 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 47 of which are in ICU, and 4,074 deaths.

Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 540,733.

There are 4,612 new cases confirmed in the province over the past seven days.

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

Alberta has administered 8,586,230 doses of vaccine at the latest update.

In the last seven days, COVID was the primary or a contributing factor in 70.9 per cent of non-ICU hospitalizations and 69.4 per cent of ICU admissions.

Among current hospitalizations, 28.1 per cent are unvaccinated, 4.2 per cent have had one dose, 30.7 per cent have had two doses and 37 per cent have had three doses.

Among Alberta’s total population, 81 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine and 76.5 per cent have received two doses 36.4 per cent have received three doses.

More detailed information is available on the province’s COVID-19 dashboard.

by Chris Brown

‘Wait and see’: Alberta seeing increase in positivity rate, wastewater data

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