By Chris Brown

No cases of Omicron in Alberta so far

Province to ramp up case investigations for international travellers amid new variant concerns

Nov 29, 2021 | 4:03 PM

There are no confirmed cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in Alberta but the province is taking steps to stop any potential spread of it from occurring.

Premier Jason Kenney said 156 Albertans have been identified as having returned in the past two weeks from one of the countries identified in Canada’s enhanced border measures.

Those travellers have been contacted and reminded about current health protocols and testing and isolation requirements. They and their households have been offered household rapid testing kits and PCR tests.

“To be clear, no one has tested positive here but we’re working with these individuals to reduce any chance of spread,” said the premier.

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Kenney said measures will be implemented for all COVID-19 cases identified in returning international travellers.

“Full case investigations and contact notification, PCR testing for all close contacts and rapid testing for households and specific settings like schools and child care settings,” said Kenney.

For all confirmed Omicron cases in people who did not travel, all close contacts will be investigated and asked about symptoms 14 days following exposure, said Kenney. He added anyone with symptoms will be treated as a probable case.

Kenney said Albertans can help the province prepare for the eventual arrival of Omicron by getting vaccinated and following public health measures.

The fourth wave of COVID-19 that overtook the province in the summer was driven by the Delta variant.

Health Minister Jason Copping reported that more than 96 per cent of Alberta Health Services employees are fully immunized, as per AHS policy. He said 99.6 per cent of physicians are fully immunized.

Copping said he’s concerned about vaccine hesitancy that remains, particularly in smaller communities where there is a potential for loss of staff and an impact on patient care.

He has directed Alberta Health Services to initiate rapid testing “at locations where there is a significant risk of service disruption due to unvaccinated employees.”

AHS president and CEO Dr. Verna Yiu said the frequent targetted testing will be temporary and introduced in a small number of clinical work locations on Dec. 13. It will only be available to a small number of staff, which Yiu estimates to be about 260 employees will be eligible at 16 work locations in the province.

The policy deadline for staff to be fully immunized will be extended to that date.

AHS originally set a deadline of Nov. 30 for employees to be fully immunized and those who were not after that date were to be placed on unpaid leave. Anyone who does not meet the new AHS requirements and deadlines will be placed on unpaid leave.

Copping also said the privacy issue that forced the province to shut down its updated QR code site last week has been fixed. The updated QR code vaccine record can be downloaded or printed at alberta.ca/covidrecords.

There are 64 active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat on Monday.

Medicine Hat has had 4,560 total cases – the 64 active, 4,418 recovered and there have been 78 deaths.

There are 12 new cases in the city since the Friday update and 20 new recoveries.

An AHS spokesperson told CHAT News on Monday that there are currently 47 COVID-19 positive inpatients in the South Zone with eight of those in the ICU. There are eight inpatients at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital with no COVID-19 positive patients in the ICU.

Chinook Regional Hospital has 30 inpatients with eight in the ICU. Cardston Health Centre, Pincher Creek Heath Centre and Raymond Health Centre have two each; and Big Country Hospital has one.

Among Hatters five years old and over, 78.4 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine and 74 per cent are fully vaccinated.

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

There are 4,850 active cases in the province, down 167 from the last update Friday, and 326,917 recovered cases in the province, up 966.

Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 335,009.

There are 806 new cases in the province since the Friday update.

There are now 432 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 77 of which are in ICU, and 3,242 deaths.

The province completed 19,156 tests since the Friday update.

The positivity rate is about 4.2 per cent.

Alberta has administered 6,872,448 doses of vaccine at the latest update.

Among new cases today, 49.6 per cent are unvaccinated, 4.4 per cent are partially vaccinated and 46.1 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Among current hospitalizations, 67.6 per cent are unvaccinated, 4.9 per cent are partially vaccinated and 27.6 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Province-wide, 80.8 per cent of Albertans five years old and up have received at least one dose of vaccine and 75.9 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Among Alberta’s total population, 75.9 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine and 71.3 per cent are fully vaccinated.

There is one local outbreak listed on AHS website.

There are no local schools on Outbreak status. One school in Medicine Hat is on Alert status, and there is one in the surrounding area.

There are 358 active cases and 22,528 recovered in the South Zone. The death total in the zone is at 289.

The province-wide reproductive value for the week of Nov. 15-28 is 0.88. It is 0.90 in Calgary Zone, 0.95 in Edmonton Zone and 0.80 in the rest of Alberta.

It’s updated every two weeks. At the last update from Nov. 1-14 the numbers were 0.92 in the province, 1.00 in Calgary Zone, 0.92 in Edmonton Zone and 0.87 in the rest of Alberta.

Cypress County has totaled 861 cases. There are 15 active cases, 841 recovered and six deaths. The latest one-dose vaccination rate for all ages is 66.7 per cent, the two-dose rate is 66.

The County of Forty Mile has 344 total cases. There are two active cases, 337 recovered and there have been five deaths. The latest one-dose vaccination rate for all ages is 41.3 per cent, the two-dose rate is 37.5.

The MD of Taber has 1,295 total cases — 21 active cases, 1,257 recovered and there have been 17 deaths. The latest one-dose vaccination rate for all ages is 47.8 per cent, the two-dose rate is 44.7.

Special Areas No. 2 has 260 total cases – 17 active cases, 240 recovered and there have been three deaths.

Brooks has 2,100 total cases — 11 active cases and 2,065 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 24 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 512 cases — 15 active cases, 489 recovered and there have been eight deaths. The latest one-dose vaccination rate for all ages is 66.4 per cent, the two-dose rate is 61.3. The Newell numbers include the city of Brooks and part of Special Areas No. 2.

The County of Warner has 790 total cases. There are 12 active cases, 774 are recovered cases and there have been four deaths in the county. The latest one-dose vaccination rate for all ages is 59.1 per cent, the two-dose rate is 54.5.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 7,179 cases. There are 128 active cases, 6,989 recovered and there have been 62 deaths. Lethbridge County has 1,978 cases, 26 active cases, 1,932 recovered and there have been 19 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 Nov. 28, 2021.”

Saskatchewan has a total of 80,950 cases, 858 considered active. There are 79,166 recovered cases and there have been 926 COVID-19 deaths in the province.