By Chris Brown

Final scheduled live COVID update

Province de-escalating pandemic response, will monitor trends, says health minister

Jun 22, 2022 | 3:58 PM

As PCR test positivity and wastewater levels continue on a downward trend the provincial health minister says Alberta and Albertans are moving forward and learning to live with COVID.

The PCR positivity rate from June 14-20 is 12.2 per cent, down about 1.6 per cent compared to the previous period, according to Jason Copping. He said wastewater signals are down to the levels they were at in the fall, before the Omicron wave.

“We’re entering a phase where the pandemic response can be de-escalated while we remain vigilant and prepared to respond to new variants that may drive another wave of cases and hospital admissions,” Copping said during Wednesday’s COVID update.

Today’s update is the last regularly scheduled live COVID update, said chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw. The provincial dashboard will still be updated weekly but changes will be made to it over the summer.

As of Monday, there are 661 COVID inpatients in Alberta hospitals, 17 of which are in ICU. There were 1,086 cases confirmed province-wide in the previous week and 13 COVID deaths.

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In Medicine Hat, there have been 12 new cases identified in the past seven days, down from 16 in the previous period. Medicine Hat has recorded one more COVID death in the past week.

On June 15, the province moved to Step 3 of easing public health measures, switching the mandatory isolation requirement for positive cases to recommended and lifting mandatory masking on public transit.

Masking and any other measures to protect patients in Alberta Health Services (AHS) and contracted health facilities will remain in place through AHS policy as required for infection prevention and control.

Chief medical officer of health orders in continuing care will be rescinded at the end of the month. Hinshaw said they are working with operators to transition preventive and outbreak management measures into the routine practice of managing infectious diseases in these settings.

Copping said the province will take lessons learned from the pandemic and apply them to future public health threats, including maintaining a surveillance program to monitor for threats as well as a framework for implementing protective measures and response.

He said they are not forgetting about COVID or overlooking its challenges

“Surveillance, testing and vaccination continue to be critical to our ability to live with COVID,” Copping said. adding plans are being made to respond to a potential rise in cases in the fall.

Alberta has confirmed a total of 587,890 over the course of the pandemic and 4,604 deaths.

Among all Medicine Hat residents, 78.8 per cent have received one dose of vaccine, 75.3 per cent have received two doses and 36.5 per cent have received three doses.

Among Alberta’s total population, 81.5 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine and 77.3 per cent have received two doses 38.2 per cent have received three doses.

More detailed information is available on the province’s COVID-19 dashboard.