By Chris Brown

12 new cases in city, 916 in province

New COVID-19 cases in Medicine Hat slowing down; Hinshaw clarifies reporting process

Oct 14, 2021 | 4:01 PM

The province’s chief officer of health apologized to the family of the 14-year-old whose death was reported on Tuesday, saying the family’s pain was compounded by public debate about the circumstances of the death.

“I am sorry if the way that I spoke about that death made your grief worse,” said Dr. Deena Hinshaw on Thursday.

She said that she often reflects on the impact the reporting process and updates and the pandemic response has on those who have lost loved ones.

She said she does not intend to diminish the losses whether caused by COVID or anything else.

“At the same time, we are in a global pandemic. We have an obligation to monitor and report deaths from COVID-19 infection and to be as timely and transparent as possible.”

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Hinshaw said reporting always includes all deaths that have COVID as either primary or secondary cause of death, according to the health-care teams involved.

She said a primary cause could be COVID progressing to pneumonia that is the direct cause of death. A secondary cause could be someone with an underlying illness such as heart failure gets COVID and the infection makes their pre-existing condition worse, leading to death.

She said the province is reporting that way to accurately capture the impact COVID-19 is having.

Hinshaw also explained that any reporting system has a tug-of-war between precision and timeliness, saying the more precise it is, the slower it is.

“We have chosen to focus as timely as possible in the interests of transparency,” she said, adding sometimes the initial information provided changes after a review, as was the case on Tuesday.

“While the initial report of the death of the 14-year-old included COVID as a secondary cause, we have now received additional information that indicated that COVID was not a cause of death,” Hinshaw said.

She said changes are being made to prevent similar situations in the future and that COVID deaths of anyone under 18 won’t be publicly reported until the review process is complete.

Dr. Verna Yiu, president and CEO of AHS, said pressures are continuing to slowly ease on hospitals and ICUs.

As of Thursday, ICUs were at 76 per cent occupancy, with 97 spaces available throughout the province. Yiu said that one month ago ICUs were at almost 90 per cent capacity and ICU admissions were increasing.

Yiu said she is cautiously optimistic.

“We are grateful that the numbers appear to be falling, but we know that this trend can be reversed easily, especially if we become complacent,” she said. “And we remain uncertain of the potential impact from the Thanksgiving long weekend.”

She added that heath-care teams remain under constant strain and that while the numbers look positive, “the pressures in the hospital remains high.”

There are 340 active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat on Thursday.

Medicine Hat has had 4,241 total cases – the 340 active, 3,834 recovered and there have been 67 deaths.

There are 12 new cases in the city in the past 24 hours and 35 new recoveries.

An AHS spokesperson told CHAT News on Thursday that there are currently 118 COVID-19 positive inpatients in the South Zone with 25 of those in the ICU. There are 46 inpatients at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital with 7 in the ICU. Last Thursday there were 54 inpatients at the local hospital, 11 in ICU.

The same Alberta Health Services spokesperson told CHAT News in early October that Medicine Hat Regional Hospital currently has 13 ICU beds, including 6 surge beds.

Chinook Regional Hospital has 56 with 18 in the ICU. Brooks Health Centre has five inpatients; Cardston Health Centre has four; Taber Health Centre has three; Pincher Creek Heath Centre has two; and Bow Island Health Centre and Crowsnest Pass Health Centre have one each.

Among Hatters 12 and over, 82.1 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine and 72.5 per cent are fully vaccinated.

71.3 per cent of all Hatters have received at least one dose of vaccine at the latest update and 62.9 per cent of Hatters are fully vaccinated.

There are 13,423 active cases in the province, down 795 from Wednesday, and 296,848 recovered cases in the province, up 1,682.

Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 313,201.

There are 916 new cases in the province in the past 24 hours.

There are now 1,016 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 231 of which are in ICU, and 2,930 deaths.

The province completed 12,733 tests in the past 24 hours.

The positivity rate is about 7.2 per cent.

Alberta has administered 6,281,014 doses of vaccine at the latest update.

Hinshaw advised the annual influenza campaign will start on Monday and encouraged people to get their flu shot.

She said influenza and COVID-19 are very different illnesses with similar symptoms. The prevention strategies for COVID such as good hygiene, staying home when sick and wearing masks are effective in preventing the spread of both.

She said last flu season, with recording-breaking uptake for the shot and no lab-confirmed cases and no influenza deaths, proves that. This season there have already been three lab-confirmed cases of influenza.

Among new cases today, 61.7 per cent are unvaccinated, 8.2 per cent are partially vaccinated and 30.2 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Among current hospitalizations, 72 per cent are unvaccinated, 4.9 per cent are partially vaccinated and 23.1 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Province-wide, 85.6 per cent of Albertans 12 years old and up have received at least one dose of vaccine and 76.5 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Among Alberta’s total population, 72.8 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine and 65 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 1,578 active cases and 19,282 recovered in the South Zone. The death total in the zone is at 231.

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 807 cases. There are 51 active cases, 750 recovered and six deaths. The latest one-dose vaccination rate for all ages is 63 per cent, the two-dose rate is 54.1.

The County of Forty Mile has 314 total cases. There are 39 active cases, 270 recovered and there have been five deaths. The latest one-dose vaccination rate for all ages is 37.8 per cent, the two-dose rate is 31.5.

The MD of Taber has 1,168 total cases — 138 active cases, 1,019 recovered and there have been 11 deaths. The latest one-dose vaccination rate for all ages is 44.8 per cent, the two-dose rate is 38.4.

Special Areas No. 2 has 228 total cases – 23 active cases, 203 recovered and there have been two deaths.

Brooks has 2,052 total cases — 86 active cases and 1,945 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 21 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 436 cases — 41 active cases, 390 recovered and there have been five deaths. The latest one-dose vaccination rate for all ages is 62.3 per cent, the two-dose rate is 52.5. The Newell numbers include the city of Brooks.

The County of Warner has 692 total cases. There are 60 active cases, 629 are recovered cases and there have been three deaths in the county. The latest one-dose vaccination rate for all ages is 56.4 per cent, the two-dose rate is 47.8.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 6,555 cases. There are 422 active cases, 6,083 recovered and there have been 50 deaths. Lethbridge County has 1,787 cases, 114 active cases, 1,657 recovered and there have been 16 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. 13, 2021.”

Saskatchewan has a total of 73,350 cases, 4,494 considered active. There are 68,287 recovered cases and there have been 769 COVID-19 deaths in the province.