By Chris Brown

One new case in city, 195 in province

COVID-19 cases continue to trend downward, variants being closely monitored

Feb 9, 2021 | 4:30 PM

Alberta’s chief medical officer of health says they are closely watching how COVID-19 cases are trending, but there is no specific benchmark on how many variant cases need to be identified for the province’s reopening plan to be paused.

“If we start to see more variants, there is of course a greater risk that our cases may start to rise, but there is no specific variant benchmark because what is most important is we keep our COVID cases trending down which in turn means our hospitalizations and our ICU numbers continue to trend down, as do our COVID deaths,” says Dr. Deena Hinshaw.

One new variant case was identified in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 104. Of those, 97 are the B.1.1.7. variant first identified in the U.K. and seven are the N501Y.V2 variant first found in South Africa.

She admitted it is a “serious worry” of hers that one of these strains becomes the new dominant strain in Alberta. But also said it’s important to keep the new numbers that in context.

She said the first variant case was identified retrospectively in a sample first taken from a returning traveller on Dec. 15. Since then, the 104 variant cases identified comes from more than 43,000 cases of COVID detected in the province.

WHAT'S ON

Here is what's on this weekend in Medicine Hat and area: Dec. 13-15

Dec 14, 2024

IN THE COMMUNITY

Medicine Hat's Mustard Seed adding new shelter spaces at Alberta government's request

Dec 12, 2024

HOLIDAYS

Medicine Hat Kiwanis hosting Christmas dinner, applications due Friday

Dec 12, 2024

She said that accounts for a quarter of a per cent of all the cases identified from Dec. 15 onward.

“Since our lab has begun testing most if not all positive samples, the average per cent of all cases that are variants of concern is higher a 1.4 per cent of all positive tests.”

She said that between Jan. 30 and Feb. 5, 38 variant cases have been found versus 2,703 non-variant cases.

“This does not in any way minimize the threats these variants pose or the impact they will have if we let them spread widely,” Hinshaw said. “However so far variants are still very rare and we are working hard to try to keep it that way.”

Alberta Health has expanded testing capacity, created dedicated variant contact tracing teams and moved rapidly to isolate variant cases and prevent virus spread, Hinshaw said.

She added the public health measures such as staying home when sick, getting tested and following the letter and spirit of the rules in place are even more important, calling them the tried and true methods.

There are 14 active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat on Tuesday.

The city now has had 535 total cases – the 14 active, 507 recovered and there have been 14 deaths.

There is one new case in the city in Tuesday’s update and one new recovery.

Across the province, there are 5,831 active cases, down 365 from Monday, and 119,678 recovered cases, up 548.

Alberta’s total number of COVID-19 cases from the start of the pandemic is 127,231.

There are 195 new cases in the province today.

There are now 427 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 78 of which are in ICU, and 422 deaths.

The province completed 7,003 tests in the past 24 hours.

The provincial positivity rate is 3.2 per cent.

As of Feb. 8, 124,325 doses of vaccine have been administered in Alberta.

Hinshaw said that since in-person classes resumed in January, cases identified in Albertans between the ages of five and 19 have trended downwards. In the first week back 113 cases were identified; just 58 were identified last week.

“While any new case is concerning, this is a positive trend. It continues to show what we have seen here in Alberta since in-person learning began in September,” said Hinshaw.

“Cases rise and fall in children and youth as the rates of community transmission increase and decrease. When combined with the other evidence that we are seeing, this tells us that schools are still not a primary driver of COVID-19 transmission when appropriate measures are applied.”

She said the measures in place are largely working thanks to the efforts and attention of teachers, staff and students. She added it remains crucial that keep transmission rates stay low and case numbers continue to drop.

She called it “the best way to protect schools, continuing care facilities and the rest of society.”

On Monday, Hinshaw announced the province has eliminated the colour-coded regional status map and removed the regional classifications of “Enhanced,” “Watch” and “Open.”

Active case numbers and active cases rates remain on the page.

Hinshaw will provide another update on Wednesday.

There are 6,051 cases in the South Zone. There are 325 active cases and 5,651 recovered. The death total in the zone is at 75.

An AHS spokesperson told CHAT News on Monday that AHS South Zone currently has 27 COVID-19 positive individuals in hospital. There are two at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital, with one of those in the ICU. Chinook Regional Hospital in Lethbridge has 24 inpatients, with nine of those in the ICU. The Pincher Creek Health Centre has one inpatient.

Seven Persons School is on “Alert” status, with two positive cases. One was confirmed on Jan. 17 and one on Jan. 15. Students and staff have been identified as close contacts and placed into quarantine.

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

Cypress County has totaled 145 cases – one active case and the rest recovered.

The County of Forty Mile has 117 total cases. There no active cases, 115 recovered and there have been two deaths.

The MD of Taber has 332 total cases — four active cases, 322 recovered and there have been six deaths.

Special Areas No. 2 has 40 total cases – one active, 38 recovered and there has been one death.

Brooks has 1,365 total cases — five active and 1,346 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 14 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 158 cases — two active cases, 154 recovered and there have been two deaths.

The County of Warner has 158 total cases. There is one active case, 155 are recovered cases and there have been two deaths in the county.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 1,828 cases. There are 189 active cases, 1,626 recovered and there have been 13 deaths. Lethbridge County has 519 cases, 12 active cases, 500 recovered and there have been seven deaths.

The figures on alberta.ca are “up-to-date as of end of day Feb. 8, 2021.”

Read the full Feb. 9 update from the province here.

Saskatchewan confirmed 80 new cases of COVID-19 in the Tuesday update.

Saskatchewan has a total of 25,654 cases, 2,026 considered active. There are 23,282 recovered cases and there have been 346 COVID-19 deaths in the province.

Saskatchewan has delivered 44,521 doses of vaccine.