COVID-19 contact tracing, public reporting to resume at schools; active cases down locally

“By protecting our young people, we’ll help to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in our schools and further into our communities,” he said.

As well, the vaccine rollout is being expanded to Albertans 75 or older and all First Nations, Metis and Inuit individuals 65 and older. Effective 8 a.m. tomorrow they can book a third booster dose of vaccine as soon as six months have passed since their last dose.

Kenney also issued a warning about the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend.

“Indoor gatherings last Thanksgiving sparked the second wave of COVID, with cases and hospitalizations surging after millions of Albertans celebrated in close contact with loved ones,” he said. “We simply cannot afford a repeat scenario. Not with this dangerous Delta variant that is still circulating and with our hospitals under such severe pressure.”

All current public health measures remain in place.

No indoor social gatherings are permitted outside of a household for people who are unvaccinated. For those who are vaccinated indoor social gatherings are limited to two households for up to 10 people over 12 years old. The number of people allowed at outdoor social gatherings has been lowered from 200 to 20.

Kenney said progress is being made in the fourth wave fight but that will be lost if Albertans don’t respect the public health rules in the days to come.

There are 544 active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat on Tuesday.

Medicine Hat has had 4,041 total cases – the 544 active, 3,436 recovered and there have been 61 deaths, two new today.

There are 19 new cases in the city in the past 24 hours and 47 new recoveries.

An AHS spokesperson told CHAT News on Monday that there are currently 130 COVID-19 positive inpatients in the South Zone with 26 of those in the ICU. There are 55 inpatients at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital with 11 in the ICU.

The same Alberta Health Services spokesperson told CHAT News Medicine Hat Regional Hospital currently has 13 ICU beds, including 6 surge beds. There are 11 COVID-19 patients in ICU at this time.

In the entire South Zone, there are currently 36 ICU beds, including 19 additional ICU spaces. South Zone ICU is operating at 83 per cent capacity (including 26 COVID patients in ICU).

Chinook Regional Hospital has 55 with 15 in the ICU. Brooks Health Centre has eight inpatients; Cardston Health Centre has five; Taber Health Centre has three; Pincher Creek Heath Centre has two; and Bow Island Health Centre and the Crowsnest Pass Health Centre have one each.

Provincially, there are 374 ICU beds open, including 201 surge spaces. There are 298 patients in ICU, the vast majority of whom are COVID positive. Provincially, ICU capacity (including additional surge beds) is at 80 per cent.

Among Hatters 12 and over, 80.8 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine and 70.9 per cent are fully vaccinated.

70.1 per cent of all Hatters have received at least one dose of vaccine at the latest update and 61.5 per cent of Hatters are fully vaccinated.

There are 19,456 active cases in the province, down 1,218 from Monday, and 282,268 recovered cases in the province, up 1,885.

Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 304,502.

There are 663 new cases in the province in the past 24 hours.

There are now 1,094 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 252 of which are in ICU, and 2,778 deaths.

The province completed 8,018 tests in the past 24 hours.

The positivity rate is about 8.3 per cent.

Alberta has administered 6,142,455 doses of vaccine at the latest update.

Education Minister Adriana LaGrange said the fourth wave has been challenging, especially for families with children who are not yet eligible to be vaccinated and for schools.

She said the province has always been committed to ensuring in-person learning can continue safely.

An interim process for contact notification will begin on Oct. 12.

“We will be supporting school authorities as they determine close contacts of individuals who were infectious while attending school. And they will notify families of those close contacts,” LaGrange said.

More information will be available online.

By mid-November, AHS will take over notifying close contacts within school settings with assistance from the schools. It will focus on school-based exposures only.

Beginning Oct. 6, Alberta Health will publicly report the name of each school with at least two COVID cases.

“Parents and guardians will be able to go online and see if their school has cases just as they did last year,” LaGrange said.

COVID-19 outbreaks will now be reported if there are 10 or more COVID cases within a 14-day period that were infectious at school.

Free COVID-19 rapid testing kids will be available for parents through their child’s school. LaGrange said it will give peace of mind to students, families and staff.

More details will be available later this month as the program is rolled out.

Chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said the highest age-specific rates of new cases has been seen recently in school-aged Albertans.

“While the majority of all of our cases are still in unvaccinated adults, currently those between the ages of five and 19 make up about a quarter of our active cases,” she said.

Children remain at a lower risk of severe outcomes but they can spread the virus to others around them who could be more susceptible to it.

Health Minister Jason Copping said he strongly supports the new measures for schools, saying the province must adapt to the fourth wave and schools need to be a priority.

On the expansion of third dose shots, Copping said it’s about giving Albertans the best protection possible.

“This builds on the booster shots that we’ve already offered to people who are profoundly immunocompromised and to people in congregate care facilities,” he said

He added third doses don’t appear to be necessary for the rest of the population at this time but they will monitor evidence from around the world and adapt as needed.

He also said the low vaccination rate is the main driver of demand on hospitals and he’s pleased more Albertans are getting vaccinated.

“Last month the total number of first and second doses given was 54 per cent higher than it was in August. That’s a real change,” he said.

AHS president and CEO Dr. Verna Yiu addressed the postponement of surgeries in the province.

Throughout the fourth wave they have tried to avoid postponements as much as possible.

“Since the end of August AHS has had to delay and postpone 8,500 surgeries provincially. This includes 805 pediatric surgeries,” Yiu said. “During the same time, we have also completed 9,100 surgeries including 3,500 emergency surgeries and 1,100 cancer surgeries. This means despite planning our teams have managed to complete over 50 per cent of scheduled surgeries in the past three weeks.”

Among new cases today, 66.2 per cent are unvaccinated, 6.4 per cent are partially vaccinated and 27.4 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Among current hospitalizations, 73.7 per cent are unvaccinated, 4.5 per cent are partially vaccinated and 21.9 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Province-wide, 84.5 per cent of Albertans 12 years old and up have received at least one dose of vaccine and 75.1 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Among Alberta’s total population, 71.9 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine and 63.9 per cent are fully vaccinated.

The number of local outbreaks listed on AHS website has been rising across the city in the past weeks.

There are 2,124 active cases and 17,910 recovered in the South Zone. The death total in the zone is at 218.

The province-wide reproductive value for the week of Sept. 27-Oct. 3 is 0.92. It is 0.93 in Calgary Zone, 0.86 in Edmonton Zone and 0.94 in the rest of Alberta.

It’s updated every two weeks. At the last update from Sept. 13-19 the numbers were 1.04 in the province, 0.94 in Calgary Zone, 0.97 in Edmonton Zone and 1.15 in the rest of Alberta.

Cypress County has totaled 774 cases. There are 84 active cases, 674 recovered and six deaths. The latest one-dose vaccination rate for all ages is 61.7 per cent, the two-dose rate is 52.8.

The County of Forty Mile has 288 total cases. There are 68 active cases, 215 recovered and there have been five deaths. The latest one-dose vaccination rate for all ages is 36.5 per cent, the two-dose rate is 30.7.

The MD of Taber has 1,079 total cases — 153 active cases, 915 recovered and there have been 11 deaths. The latest one-dose vaccination rate for all ages is 43.6 per cent, the two-dose rate is 37.4.

Special Areas No. 2 has 217 total cases – 40 active cases, 175 recovered and there have been two deaths.

Brooks has 1,999 total cases — 176 active cases and 1,803 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 20 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 406 cases — 52 active cases, 349 recovered and there have been five deaths. The latest one-dose vaccination rate for all ages is 60.8 per cent, the two-dose rate is 51.2. The Newell numbers include the city of Brooks.

The County of Warner has 653 total cases. There are 67 active cases, 583 are recovered cases and there have been three deaths in the county. The latest one-dose vaccination rate for all ages is 55.3 per cent, the two-dose rate is 46.7.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 6,301 cases. There are 481 active cases, 5,774 recovered and there have been 46 deaths. Lethbridge County has 1,719 cases, 179 active cases, 1,526 recovered and there have been 14 deaths.

Not all the areas on the vaccination data map match the case count map.

The figures on alberta.ca are “up-to-date as of end of day Oct. 4, 2021.”

Saskatchewan has a total of 69,331 cases, 4,385 considered active. There are 64,220 recovered cases and there have been 726 COVID-19 deaths in the province.

by Chris Brown

COVID-19 contact tracing, public reporting to resume at schools; active cases down locally

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