Everything you need to know about COVID-19 in Alberta on Thursday, Feb. 18
Province reports 415 new COVID-19 cases, seven more deaths
The latest:
- Alberta reported 415 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, compared with 277 new cases reported Wednesday.
- There were 4,887 active cases on Thursday, up from 4,857 the previous day.
- The testing positivity rate is 4.2 per cent, up from 3.9 per cent the previous day.
- Seven more people have died, bringing the total number of deaths in the province to 1,805.
- There are 362 people in hospital as of Thursday, including 55 in intensive care.
- As of Thursday, the province has confirmed a total of 239 cases of people infected with the coronavirus variants — 232 of the strain first identified in the U.K. and seven of the strain first identified in South Africa.
- Roughly half of the cases that have been fully investigated have been found to be linked to travel. Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, says that's a concern because it means the other half are considered community acquired — and a third of them have an unknown source.
- Alberta Health told CBC News that nine schools have had a case of someone with the variant attending while infectious and three schools have had in-school transmission.
- As of Tuesday, 155,500 doses of the vaccine had been administered. There are now approximately 58,000 Albertans who are fully immunized after receiving both doses.
- Alberta Minister of Health Tyler Shandro said at a press conference Thursday the province now has capacity to investigate and trace all contacts for up to 1,500 COVID cases each day.
- Hinshaw encouraged people who test positive to work with contact tracers to help control the spread of the illness.
- Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is defending his government's COVID-19 vaccine rollout in the face of criticism that virtually no details have been shared regarding its distribution plan. He said Wednesday the province will lay out its priority lists for the next phases of the vaccine distribution program "pretty soon" after studying what other provinces are doing. "The problem now is supply. We effectively ran out of supply, for all intents and purposes, in mid-January. So, that is our primary focus. I will say, when it comes to the subsequent phases, a lot of this is quite fluid," he said.
- Hinshaw said on Wednesday there has been an increase in Albertans who aren't participating in the contact tracing process. So far for February, 1.3 per cent of confirmed cases did not answer or return calls.
- Hinshaw said Tuesday she has been hearing a lot of questions around capacity limits at restaurants. She explained that, unlike other public settings, such as retail stores, Alberta has not implemented specific capacity limits on restaurants, bars and lounges.
- Instead, the province has put in place physical-distancing rules that require a minimum of two-metres between tables. "In addition, we have limited the number of people in a dining party who can be seated at the same table to a maximum of six. And these must be members of the same household or an individual living alone with their two contacts."
- The closure of the Olymel pork-processing plant due to an outbreak of COVID-19 has left hog farmers scrambling to find somewhere to take their animals. According to Alberta Pork, 40,000 to 50,000 pigs go through the Red Deer facility each week. Executive director Darcy Fitzgerald says even a two-week closure will create a significant backlog. "If we look at coming back by at least March 1st, we'll probably be about 130,000 pigs backlogged," he said.
- As of Monday, 326 employees at the plant had tested positive for COVID-19, nearly double the count of 168 on Feb. 6. Of those, 192 remain active.
- The Alberta government is making an additional $10,000 available to small- and medium-sized businesses that have seen severe revenue drops because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Premier Jason Kenney and Jobs, Economy and Innovation Minister Doug Schweitzer made an announcement Wednesday that $120 million is being set aside to supplement existing supports for enterprises.
- The pastor of an Edmonton-area church remains in police custody one day after his arrest on two counts of contravening the Public Health Act and on one criminal charge for failing to comply with a condition of an undertaking. On Sunday, members of the RCMP and Alberta Health Services went to the GraceLife Church in Parkland County west of Edmonton to assess compliance in relation to conditions issued to Pastor James Coates earlier in the week, police said in a news release Wednesday.
- Calgary police say a video showing an officer shaking the hand of an unmasked, anti-mask protester on Saturday captured the end of a peaceful negotiation — with no day-of enforcement despite a number of people breaking Public Health Act rules.
- The incident happened as dozens of unmasked protesters walked through Chinook Centre to protest public health restrictions in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
- Some experts fear a continued lack of consequences for some protesting essential measures could cripple the province's pandemic response. "That sends a message to the community that these rules aren't important, that perhaps we are safe without following these rules and we're not," said Dr. Tehseen Ladha, an assistant professor in pediatrics at the University of Alberta.
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WestJet says it's temporarily cutting service to some communities in four provinces as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to hammer the airline. The Calgary-based airline says it will stop the following flights until June 24:
- Calgary to Medicine Hat, starting on March 21.
- Calgary to Lloydminster, starting on March 19.
- London, Ont., to Toronto, starting on March 22.
- St. John's to Halifax, starting on March 21.
- The University of Lethbridge says it's anticipating "positive shifts" related to COVID-19 health measures in coming months, and is in the planning stages for a significant return of students to the campus for the fall 2021 semester.
See the detailed regional breakdown:
Here is the detailed regional breakdown of active cases as of Thursday.
- Calgary zone: 1,734, down from 1,823 reported on Wednesday (47,594 recovered).
- Edmonton zone: 1,287, up from 1,270 (50,746 recovered).
- North zone: 799, up from 719 (10,151 recovered).
- South zone: 333, down from 338 (5,863 recovered).
- Central zone: 729, up from 697 (8,844 recovered).
- Unknown: 5, down from 10 (100 recovered).
Find out which neighbourhoods or communities have the most cases, how hard people of different ages have been hit, the ages of people in hospital, how Alberta compares to other provinces and more in: Here are the latest COVID-19 statistics for Alberta — and what they mean
Here are the latest Alberta COVID-19 stories:
Alberta has capacity to investigate 1,500 COVID-19 cases each day, minister says
The province had only 50 contact tracers when the pandemic began last March but now has about 2,300, Health Minister Tyler Shandro said Thursday at a news conference.
That workforce includes a dedicated team of 50 tracers who work only on cases of people infected with the more contagious variants of the coronavirus, he said.
"The team has made incredible gains," Shandro said. "In January alone, case investigators and contact tracers from Alberta Health Services closed a total of 21,216 investigations. That's the highest monthly number of COVID-19 investigations closed to date."
Alberta Health can now contact anyone who tests positive within 24 hours, he said. On Jan. 12, the team contacted and traced 1,003 cases in 24 hours.
Dr. Mark Joffe, an Alberta Health Services vice-president and medical director for northern Alberta, said the province is in "a much better place" than it was in December.
"New cases have been trending down across the province over the last several weeks," he said. "In recent weeks, we've seen individuals with COVID-19 [who] have had about five or six close contacts each. This compares with back in November when the average was about 15 close contacts for each individual.
It has been 10 days since some restrictions were eased. Now provincial health officials are keeping an eye on the numbers to determine the next phase of reopening.
Alberta's phased approach to reopening is directly tied to hospitalization numbers and influenced by other indicators, such as infection rates and case counts.
If the number of people in hospital remains below 450, restrictions listed under Step 2 of the reopening framework could be loosened as early as March 1.
For more, see: Alberta has capacity to investigate 1,500 COVID-19 cases each day, minister says
Jason Kenney defends vaccine rollout plan as critics call for more details
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is defending his government's COVID-19 vaccine rollout in the face of criticism that virtually no details have been shared regarding its distribution plan.
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi weighed in on Tuesday, saying he believes — despite all of the province's talk about supply issues and Ottawa's failure to solve them — that the bigger problem is going to be distribution.
"In other words, before we know it we're going to have more supply than we have ability to put in peoples' arms. So our goal needs to be to solve that problem now before it happens and make sure we are ready to do massive vaccinations as soon as supply is available," he said.
Kenney said Wednesday that he doesn't see the need for a big rush. He said the province will lay out its priority lists for the next phases of the vaccine distribution program "pretty soon" after studying what other provinces are doing.
"The problem now is supply, we effectively ran out of supply for all intents and purposes in mid January. So, that is our primary focus. I will say, when it comes to the subsequent phases, a lot of this is quite fluid," he said.
For more, see: Jason Kenney defends vaccine rollout plan as critics call for more details
Closure of Olymel plant due to outbreak means backlog for Alberta pork producers
The closure of the Olymel pork processing plant due to an outbreak of COVID-19 has left hog farmers scrambling to find somewhere to take their animals.
"I am very concerned. We are lucky we have a few weeks, but I know farmers, they have to ship next week," said Arnold van Ginkel, a pork producer who ships about 140 pigs from his farm in Leslieville to the Olymel plant every week.
That's just a fraction of the plant's capacity.
According to Alberta Pork, 40,000 to 50,000 pigs go through the Red Deer facility each week.
Executive Director Darcy Fitzgerald says even a two week closure will create a significant backlog. "If we look at coming back by at least March 1st we'll probably be about 130,000 pigs backlogged," he said.
Farmers will be looking at options that include finding spare room and feed or shipping the animals to Manitoba or to the U.S. in order to avoid euthanizing them.
Fitzgerald says that adds costs to an already struggling industry, with most producers not turning a profit since 2015.
As of Tuesday, an outbreak at the Olymel Red Deer Food Processing Plant was linked to 343 cases, 200 of which were active.
For more, see: Closure of Olymel plant due to outbreak means backlog for Alberta pork producers
Increase in Albertans not participating in contact tracing process
Since last fall, Alberta Health Services has increased its capacity to do contact tracing, Hinshaw said.
Until December, less than one per cent of confirmed cases didn't answer the phone or return calls from contact tracers.
But since then, the province has seen a "concerning" rise in such incidents, Hinshaw said, and in January tracers had problems contacting people in about two per cent of positive cases. So far in February, tracers have encountered that problem in about 1.3 per cent of cases.
"Contact tracing remains essential to our ability to keep Albertans healthy and to keep driving our cases downward," she said. "To be successful in containing COVID spread, contact tracing relies on a partnership with Albertans who test positive or who have been exposed to COVID-19.
"Unfortunately, recently, we have seen a small but significant increase in the number of people who aren't participating with the contact tracing process. It may be tempting to think that not providing information will make COVID go away. Unfortunately, the opposite is true."
For more, see: Alberta reports 277 new COVID-19 cases, seven more deaths from illness
Alberta adds $120 million in pandemic supports for struggling businesses
The Alberta government is making an additional $10,000 available to small- and medium-sized businesses that have seen severe revenue drops because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Premier Jason Kenney and Jobs, Economy and Innovation Minister Doug Schweitzer announced Wednesday afternoon that $120 million is being set aside to supplement existing supports for enterprises.
Businesses that show a 60 per cent reduction in revenue will be eligible to be granted 15 per cent of their typical monthly income, up to a maximum of $10,000. Applications for a piece of that funding will open in April.
The support is available to companies with fewer than 500 employees and does not need to be repaid. The province says the money can be used for things like covering the cost of personal protective equipment, paying rent or staff salaries.
"We know that many Alberta small businesses and job creators will still need help for the foreseeable future," Kenney said on Wednesday.
For more, see: Alberta adds $120 million in pandemic supports for struggling businesses
Alberta's increase in COVID-19 variants points to need for asymptomatic testing, Calgary doctor says
The number of coronavirus variant cases confirmed in Alberta has reached 221, and roughly half of the cases that have been fully investigated have been found to be linked to travel.
Alberta's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, said at a press conference on Tuesday that she's particularly concerned about the growing number of cases that are not linked to travel.
She says those cases are considered community acquired and that a third of them have an unknown source.
Dr. Vanessa Meier-Stephenson, an infectious disease physician with the University of Calgary, says she fully expects there are cases of the variant they're not detecting.
"When we start seeing some of the transmission in the community and when we're seeing transmission that we can't link back to a specific source, it does raise increasing concerns around how this is spreading in the community," she said.
Meier-Stephenson says there are still many questions about the variants including how long people are infectious.
"Our government and our public health officials are doing what they can to kind of develop plans around this. But sometimes with a lot of these unknowns entering into the equation, it does make it more challenging for them to make informed decisions, such as opening up various facilities and steps," she said.
This is why Meier-Stephenson says she would like to see a return to more widespread asymptomatic testing — something the province cancelled in the fall.
For more, see: Alberta's increase in COVID-19 variants points to need for asymptomatic testing, Calgary doctor says
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With files from The Canadian Press