By Chris Brown

Below average around city

High vaccination rates in city, low in surrounding areas

May 18, 2021 | 5:00 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – A new interactive map that breaks down vaccination rates by regions across the province shows a divide between Medicine Hat and the surrounding rural areas.

In the city, 47.3 per cent of residents have received their first dose, the 19th-highest rate in the province.

In Cypress County that drops to 37.8 per cent. In the County of Forty Mile the number plummets to 20.2 per cent, the second-lowest rate in the province. In Newell the rate is 34.7 per cent and it’s 26.2 in the MD of Taber.

The provincial average is 42.2 per cent.

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On Monday, chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said she’s often asked if people who live outside a major city are at lower risk of COVID-19 infection.

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She said most of the areas with the highest active case rates are in rural locations.

“The bottom line is right now you are at a higher risk of being exposed to COVID-19 in many rural parts of our province than if you are living in a big city,” she said.

She added that while it’s correct that some rural areas had lower case rates at the beginning of the pandemic, that has clearly changed.

“Also, case rates are not the only factor to consider. It is also important to look at the rates of severe outcomes like hospitalizations if people get sick. As the premier noted, our data shows that over the course of the pandemic people living in rural areas have been more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 compared to people living in urban areas,” she said.

“Among cases diagnosed since February 2021, the case to hospitalization ratio is 26 per cent higher for rural areas of Alberta than for urban ones,” she continued. “This means if they contract COVID-19 people living in rural Alberta are 26 per cent more likely to end up in hospital compared to those living in an urban location. Similarly, the case to ICU ratio is 30 per cent higher.”

Out of the 647 hospitalizations reported yesterday 225 of them live in rural areas which is 19 per cent higher than would be expected based on population alone, the chief medical officer of health added. “Similarly there are 66 patients with COVID-19 in ICU right now who don’ live in one of the major urban centres. This is 22 per cent higher than we would expect based on their share of the population alone.”

She said none of that is meant to stigmatize rural Albertans, only to make it clear COVID-19 is spreading and having an impact everywhere in our province.

In April a statement was issued by close to 20 UCP MLAs who said new restrictions introduced April 6 move the province backwards.

Most of the MLAs who signed the statement represent rural ridings, including Cypress-Medicine Hat’s MLA Drew Barnes, now an Independent, and Brooks-Medicine Hat’s Michaela Glasgo of the UCP.

“We’ve heard from a number of municipal councils, mayors, reeves in rural Alberta the view that their communities are being somehow penalized for the pandemic that they claim is largely an urban issue. And so we’re trying to make sure people are informed,” said Premier Jason Kenney.

“We’ve seen a growing kind of commentary from some folks in rural Alberta who believe that measures are inappropriate for their areas and our point is simply that if you look at the map that Dr. Hinshaw showed you, it’s actually many of those areas that are creating disproportionate challenge and pressure on the health-care system.”