Data shows COVID-19 transmission appears to be slowing down, says Alberta health minister

Hospital admissions are going the other way though.

Copping said they have risen by about eight per cent in the past week, an expected occurrence as more people venture out into to public more often as mask-wearing in public is becoming less common. ICU admissions are staying stable and overall hospital admissions are up slightly but are in line with pre-COVID years, he added.

“We’re now about five weeks in the BA.2-driven surge in transmission and we can see that the impact is much less than the initial Omicron wave, especially when it comes to hospital admissions,” he said.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw said COVID virus will likely be more prevalent in the fall and winter months when respiratory virus is typically more common.

“What we don’t know of course is the impact that viral evolution will have and how new variants of concern might interact with our population,” she said. “But ultimately what we have seen … vaccines are incredibly effective at minimizing severe outcomes.”

Hinshaw also advised that Astra-Zeneca COVID vaccines will no longer be available in Alberta. There is ample supply of the preferred Moderna and Pfizer options, as well as Janssen and Novavax vaccines are available for those who need or want a non-mRNA vaccine.

Medicine Hat’s seven-day new case rate per 100,000 people is 173.2 on 118 new cases in the past seven days. The previous period’s rate was 155.6 and there were 106 new cases.

The city is in the “high” classification for seven-day case rate, the same as last week. There are four classifications – highest, high, medium and low.

There have been 7,730 confirmed total cases in Medicine Hat and 97 deaths, three new in the past week.

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.

Among all Medicine Hat residents, 78.6 per cent have received one dose of vaccine, 75 per cent have received two doses and 35.8 per cent have received three doses.

The latest wastewater data for Medicine Hat, updated on April 25, shows the city’s weekly average of genomic copies (gc) per one millilitre (mL) of wastewater is 184.35. It’s been between 159.26 and 205.28 since the beginning of April. In the fifth wave, it peaked at 266.2 on Jan. 31.

A spokesperson for Alberta Health Services told CHAT News on Wednesday there are currently 71 COVID-19 positive inpatients in the South Zone with four of those in the ICU. There are 17 inpatients at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital with three COVID-19 positive patients in the ICU.

Chinook Regional Hospital has 40 inpatients with one in the ICU. Crowsnest Pass Health Centre has five inpatients; Pincher Creek Health Centre and Taber Health Centre have three each; Cardston Health Centre has two; and Raymond Health Centre has one.

There are now 1,220 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 47 of which are in ICU, and 4,252 deaths.

Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 565,052.

There are 6,569 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 8,698,772 doses of vaccine at the latest update.

In the last seven days, COVID was the primary or a contributing factor in 65.3 per cent of non-ICU hospitalizations and 75.7 per cent of ICU admissions.

Among current hospitalizations, 20.8 per cent are unvaccinated, 3.4 per cent have had one dose, 27.3 per cent have had two doses and 48.5 per cent have had three doses.

Among Alberta’s total population, 81.2 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine and 76.8 per cent have received two doses 37.2 per cent have received three doses.

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

by Chris Brown

Data shows COVID-19 transmission appears to be slowing down, says Alberta health minister

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