By Chris Brown

16 new cases in Medicine Hat in past week

Latest COVID-19 update is ‘more good news,’ says health minister

Jun 16, 2022 | 12:03 PM

COVID-19 data posted by the province on Wednesday shows case counts and hospitalizations dropping in Medicine Hat and across Alberta.

In Medicine Hat, there have been 16 new cases identified in the past seven days, down from 29 in the previous period. The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 is also down slightly, from 15 to 14. There are no COVID patients in ICU in the South Zone.

Wastewater levels are also trending down and are near the levels from before the Omicron wave hit in many centres, including Medicine Hat.

“The updated COVID-19 data posted June 15 is more good news, especially for the people working in our hospitals, family physicians and other health-care providers. The Omicron wave continues to recede,” says Health Minister Jason Copping in a statement.

Copping adds hospitals, EMS and other health-care services remain under strain, especially in Edmonton and Calgary. You can read his full statement below.

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There are currently 719 COVID-19 patients in hospital, including 19 in ICU, province-wide, less than half of the Omicron peak and the lowest number since the first month of the year.

Alberta has confirmed 1,442 cases in the past seven days, a total of 586,108 over the course of the pandemic.

Alberta has recorded 4,591 COVID-19 deaths. One hundred of those are in Medicine Hat.

Among all Medicine Hat residents, 78.7 per cent have received one dose of vaccine, 75.3 per cent have received two doses and 36.5 per cent have received three doses.

Among Alberta’s total population, 81.4 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine and 77.2 per cent have received two doses 38.1 per cent have received three doses.

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

Health Minister Jason Copping’s statement:

“The updated COVID-19 data posted June 15 is more good news, especially for the people working in our hospitals, family physicians and other health-care providers. The Omicron wave continues to recede. Wastewater levels are trending down and are near the levels before Omicron in many centres, including Grande Prairie, Fort McMurray, Red Deer, Medicine Hat and Lethbridge. The levels are higher in Edmonton and Calgary but trending down. The number of COVID-19 patients in hospital continues to drop. The latest total of 719 is less than half the Omicron peak, the lowest since early January, and we expect the numbers to continue to trend down.

“Our hospitals, EMS and other services remain under strain, especially in Edmonton and Calgary, for the same reasons as in other provinces: a wave of patients in recent months due to deferred care over the past two years, large numbers of patients with COVID-19 due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, plus a late season for flu and other respiratory viruses. The pandemic is adding to the strain in other ways, including depleting the workforce and forcing hospitals to ‘block’ beds for infection control. The result is that emergency departments are struggling to keep up even with staff being added across the system, including 800 more staff in emergency departments than before the pandemic.

“All these factors will ease as the Omicron BA.2 wave recedes. Patient volumes are moderating in the five regional centres, where total occupancy ranges from 85 per cent to 91 per cent, the same as or lower than June for the five years before COVID-19 (2015 to 2019). Fort McMurray is the one exception with 85 per cent occupancy, slightly higher than the months of June from 2015 to 2019. Hospitals in Edmonton and Calgary remain under significant pressure, with a couple of sites over 100 per cent, but the strain should ease as the Omicron wave recedes.

“It’s been a tough spring for our health system in Alberta and across Canada. We’ll keep adding capacity to help the system recover from the latest wave of COVID-19, and to give Albertans better access to care.”