Alberta expanding vaccination program to paramedics, emergency medical responders

“Alberta’s capacity to give people the jab will soon outstrip available supplies. And we’re doing everything humanly possible to roll out these life-saving vaccines as quickly as they arrive.”

Alberta opened COVID-19 vaccinations to health-care workers in COVID units, as well as medical and surgical units on Jan. 8.

Plans for inoculating seniors in the general population over 75 years old and those on First Nations communities over 65 years old will be announced soon, said Kenney.

As of Sunday, Kenney said, 46,791 doses have been administered to long-term-care residents, respiratory therapists, ICU nurses and doctors and other frontline health care workers. More than three-quarters of the doses in Alberta have been given.

Kenney says he’s confident Alberta will have the capacity to administer 50,000 doses per week by the end of January and the stretch goal is to increase capacity to 200,000 per week by end of March.

About 677,000 doses are expected from the federal government by the end of March.

There are 36 active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat on Monday.

The city now has had 494 total cases – the 36 active, 448 recovered and there have been 10 deaths.

There are zero new cases in the city in Monday’s update and also no recoveries. There is one new death in the city today.

Across the province, there are 13,917 active cases, down 199 from Sunday, and 96,867 recovered cases, up 815.

Alberta’s total number of COVID-19 cases from the start of the pandemic is 112,091.

There are 639 new cases in the province today.

There are now 811 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 130 of which are in ICU, and 1,307 deaths.

The province completed 9,838 tests in the past 24 hours.

The provincial positivity rate is 6.1 per cent.

As of Jan. 10, 46,791 doses of vaccine have been administered in Alberta.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw said Albertans are right to celebrate the success in distributing the vaccine and declining case numbers and addressed concerns some have expressed about the vaccine.

She said despite the fast approvals, the same rigorous testing and scrutiny was applied to these vaccines as any other.

“Clinical trials with tens of thousands of participants from multiple countries found no safety concerns with the vaccines we are administering. But we are not taking that for granted,” she said. “As we do with all new vaccines we are watching closely to ensure that if any safety signals emerge we will be able to detect them immediately.”

There have been just seven adverse events from the more than 46,000 doses administered.

“These are any health problems that follow immunization. They are not necessarily caused by the vaccine. But if a health problem happens after an immunization, we want to know so we can evaluate it.”

Most of the events were minor, including swollen lymph nodes, diarrhea or a rash. Three involved an allergic reaction, none of which were determined to be anaphylactic reactions, said Hinshaw.

She added a limited number of adverse events is common in any immunization campaign. She said the rate in this campaign is roughly comparable to that of a pneumococcal vaccine.

She believes the benefits of the vaccine far outweigh the risks.

She also said “we have more to do, but we are bending the curve and we must keep up this momentum in the days ahead.”

The chief medical officer of health also said ongoing research into the effect of the vaccine on symptomatic infection and asymptomatic transmission from infection is key to being able to fully lift provincial restrictions.

She said studies have shown that roughly 70 per cent of the population needs to be immune before we would have herd immunity.

Medicine Hat and the entire province remains in enhanced status, in which risk levels require enhanced public health measures to control the spread and are informed by local context.

Medicine Hat remains on the provincial “Watch” list, though is only two cases above the threshold.

Regions are placed on the province’s “Watch” list when they have a rate of more than 50 active cases per 100,000 population. Medicine Hat’s 36 active cases among 68,057 people puts it at a rate of 52.9.

Brooks (82.9 rate), The County of Newell (86.5), Lethbridge (110.1) Lethbridge County (146.7) are also on the list.

Cypress County, the County of Forty Mile and MD of Taber are no longer on the “Watch” list.

There are 5,282 cases in the South Zone. There are 307 active cases and 4,910 recovered. The death total in the zone is at 65.

An AHS spokesperson tells CHAT News the South Zone currently has 20 COVID-19 positive individuals in hospital. There are nine at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital, with three of those in the ICU. Chinook Regional Hospital in Lethbridge also has nine inpatients, with three of those in the ICU. The Brooks Health Centre and Pincher Creek Health Centre have one inpatient each.

School outbreaks will begin to be reported again this week following the return to in-person classes on Monday.

The website Support Our Students is tracking instances of cases in schools across the province.

Cypress County has totaled 144 cases – five active cases and the rest recovered.

The County of Forty Mile has 117 total cases. There are four active cases, 111 recovered and there have been two deaths.

The MD of Taber has 318 total cases — eight active cases, 304 recovered and there have been six deaths.

Special Areas No. 2 has 40 total cases – six active, 33 recovered and there has been one death.

Brooks has 1,359 total cases — 16 active and 1,329 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 14 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 146 cases — seven active cases, 137 recovered and there have been two deaths.

The County of Warner has 149 total cases. There are six active cases, 141 are recovered cases and there have been two deaths in the county.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 1,511 cases. There are 109 active cases, 1,392 recovered and there have been 10 deaths. Lethbridge County has 465 cases, 37 active cases, 421 recovered and there have been seven deaths.

The figures on alberta.ca are “up-to-date as of end of day Jan. 10, 2021.”

Read the full Jan. 11 update from the province here.

Saskatchewan confirmed 1,051 new cases of COVID-19 since the Friday update.

Saskatchewan has a total of 18,522 cases, 3,735 considered active. There are 14,588 recovered cases and there have been 199 COVID-19 deaths in the province.

Saskatchewan has delivered 8,948 doses of vaccine.

by Chris Brown

Alberta expanding vaccination program to paramedics, emergency medical responders

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