1,625 new COVID-19 cases in Alberta

“With are now focused on investigating cases in high priority settings such as continuing care as well as those who work in health care,” Hinshaw said.

Cases not in high priority settings will still be notified of the test result and be informed about isolation requirements.

She said the decision aligns with other provinces and is necessary to ensure teams can focus on cases in high-priority areas.

The province will also start preserving testing capacity and will reserve PCR testing for higher-risk groups.

“From this point forward we recommend that rapid tests be preferentially used for those who have symptoms for most people,” she said.

Those who are symptomatic and have access to a rapid testing kit, are encouraged to use that test instead of going for a PCR test. If the test is positive and you have symptoms, Hinshaw said to consider that as confirmation you have COVID, isolate and notify close contacts. If it is negative and you have symptoms, you should stay in isolation and take another test in a day or two. If that test is negative, stay in isolation until symptoms end.

Exceptions are anyone who lives or works in high-risk setting or who qualifies for COVID antibody treatment because of clinical condition. Details are available on alberta.ca/COVID.

The province is also updating the screening process for staff in long-term care, designated supportive living and hospice care. Immunized staff who are known close contacts will be required to take a daily rapid test for 10 days following their exposure.

Even with the high number of cases and positivity rate, the number of COVID hospitalizations continues to drop. But Hinshaw said there’s no telling if that will continue.

“While these numbers have dropped in the recent week, it’s important to remember these are very high baselines, and it’s too soon to know what the severity impact from our Omicron cases will be,” she said.

There are 58 active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat on Thursday.

Medicine Hat has had 4,661 total cases – the 58 active, 4,525 recovered and there have been 78 deaths.

There are 15 new cases in the city in the past 24 hours and three new recoveries.

An AHS spokesperson told CHAT News Tuesday that there are currently 18 COVID-19 positive inpatients in the South Zone with two of those in the ICU. There are two inpatients at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital with no COVID-19 positive patients in the ICU.

Chinook Regional Hospital has 13 inpatients with two in the ICU. Cardston Health Centre has one inpatient.

There have been 2,637 cases of the Omicron variant identified in Alberta, up from 2,131 in Wednesday’s update. Thirty-one of those cases are in the South Zone.

Among Hatters five years old and over, 80.7 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine and 75.4 per cent have received at least two doses.

76.7 per cent of all Hatters have received at least one dose of vaccine at the latest update.

There are 8,359 active cases in the province, up 1,294 from Wednesday, and 335,047 334,716 recovered cases in the province, up 331.

Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 346,705.

There are 1,625 new cases in the province in the past 24 hours.

There are now 318 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 64 of which are in ICU, and 3,299 deaths.

The province completed 11,871 tests in the past 24 hours.

The positivity rate is about 13.7 per cent.

Alberta has administered 7,452,649 doses of vaccine at the latest update.

Hinshaw again urged Albertans to cut their in-person interactions over the holidays by at least half, even if they would be compliant with current rules.

“I believe the situation is that serious,” she said.

With the majority of new cases being in fully or partially vaccinated Albertans, the chief medical officer of health acknowledged Omicron is different than previous variants.

She said with the vast majority of Albertans at least partially vaccinated it should be expected that a greater proportion of cases would be in vaccinated people.

“The second difference is that Omicron evades immune protection in a different way from Delta. And that’s not just with vaccines it includes those who’ve had previous infection,” she said. “What we know is that third dose of vaccine is much more important with Omicron than it was with Delta.”

Hinshaw said COVID-19 reporting will be modified over the holidays.

She will give in-person updates on Dec. 28 and Dec. 30. Online data will not be updated again until Dec. 29, with data from Dec. 24-28 included.

Another detailed breakdown of cases will come on Jan. 4.

NDP Leader Rachel Notley was quick to weigh in.

“With all due respect, with cases doubling every three days, and the world on edge about what this will mean for our hospitals, choosing to forgo public reporting for several days makes no sense,” she posted on Twitter.

Among new cases today, 19.2 per cent are unvaccinated, 1 per cent are partially vaccinated and 79.8 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Among current hospitalizations, 59.8 per cent are unvaccinated, 2.8 per cent are partially vaccinated and 37.4 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Province-wide, 83.9 per cent of Albertans five years old and up have received at least one dose of vaccine and 77.3 per cent have received two doses and 18.3 per cent have received three doses.

Among Alberta’s total population, 78.8 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine and 72.7 per cent have received two doses 17.2 per cent have received three doses.

There are no local outbreaks listed on AHS website.

There are no local schools on Outbreak status. One school in Medicine Hat is on Alert status, and there are none in the surrounding area.

There are 241 active cases and 23,609 recovered in the South Zone. The death total in the zone is at 290.

The province-wide reproductive value for the weeks of Nov. 29-Dec. 12 is 0.96. It is 0.90 in Calgary Zone, 0.99 in Edmonton Zone and 0.93 in the rest of Alberta.

It’s updated every two weeks. At the last update from Nov. 15-28, the numbers were 0.88 in the province, 0.90 in Calgary Zone, 0.95 in Edmonton Zone and 0.80 in the rest of Alberta.

The figures on alberta.ca are “up-to-date as of end of day Dec. 22, 2021.”

Saskatchewan has a total of 82,640 cases, 789 considered active. There are 80,906 recovered cases and there have been 945 COVID-19 deaths in the province.

by Chris Brown

1,625 new COVID-19 cases in Alberta

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