Everything you need to know about COVID-19 in Alberta on Thursday, Feb. 3

EDITOR'S NOTE: Daily case counts have never been perfect, but at this point in the Omicron-driven wave, they're a deeply flawed metric. Throughout the pandemic, the case counts have been based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing done by provincial bodies like Alberta Health Services, but those testing protocols have shifted to prioritize high-priority groups and people in higher risk settings, like health-care workers. So there are likely to be thousands of cases going untested, or tested but not reported, since there is no system for cataloguing at-home rapid antigen tests. 

As a result, CBC News will de-emphasize case counts in our coverage, in favour of data and metrics that experts now say are more illuminating — such as COVID-19 hospitalizations and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, which help us understand Omicron's impact on the health-care system and severity of illness it causes, as well as the testing positivity rate, which if it starts to level out and come down could indicate the wave has peaked.

The latest: 

• Alberta will announce a plan early next week to start lifting most, if not all, public health restrictions, said Premier Jason Kenney during a Facebook Live on Thursday.
• Alberta must prepare to adopt an endemic approach to managing COVID-19, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, said Thursday.
• Hospitalizations are starting to level off, but 15 more COVID-19 deaths were reported Thursday.
• Hinshaw also announced that the province will shorten the recommended quarantine period for unvaccinated, asymptomatic household contacts of confirmed cases. The quarantine will decrease to 10 days from 14.
• Hinshaw announced the province has received 3.1 million rapid tests.They are being shipped to pharmacies in Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer, along with First Nations communities and Alberta Health Services locations, Hinshaw said.
• Shipments of Pfizer's at-home COVID treatment, Paxlovid, are available to some Albertans as of Jan. 31. The treatment will be available to specific groups of people who have tested positive on a lab-based COVID-19 test. 
• Paxlovid is intended for those who are older than 65, are unvaccinated and have immunosuppressive conditions; or people older than 18 who are unvaccinated with pre-existing medical conditions that put them at higher risk of severe illness or death, if they were to contract COVID-19.
• More Pfizer vaccine doses are now available in Alberta for those who have been waiting for them for first, second or third shots, Health Minister Jason Copping says.

Recent numbers:

• There were 1,584 people with COVID in Alberta hospitals as reported on Feb. 3, down from 1,598 the day before. 
• There are 112 people with COVID in intensive care as reported on Feb. 3, an increase of six from Feb. 2.
• Of people admitted to hospital in the past week, 57 per cent of new non-ICU admissions and 70.2 per cent of new ICU admissions were directly related to COVID. The remainder of admissions were not related to the virus, or it was unclear. 
• As of Jan. 29, provincial ICU capacity (including additional surge beds) was at 75.1 per cent. Without the additional surge spaces, provincial ICU capacity would be at 105 per cent.
• On Jan. 20, Hinshaw said that about four per cent of people in hospital with COVID are under the age of 18. She said she hasn't seen any children who have had at least one dose of vaccine in hospital for COVID.
• The province announced Jan. 20 it is expanding bed capacity for Omicron patients. Existing beds are being allocated for COVID-19 care, and additional beds are being opened in some locations as needed.
• Alberta's positivity rate reported on Feb. 3 was around 34 per cent. 
• The province reported 15 more COVID deaths on Feb. 3. A total of 3,608 Albertans have died of COVID-19. 
• Case counts:
  • 2,370 new cases were reported to Alberta Health out of 7,338 tests. 
  • Hinshaw said the true figure is likely 10 times that number given that high caseloads have overwhelmed the ability of the system to test outside high-priority groups.
  • Alberta has 33,879 active cases of COVID-19.

Acute care outbreaks:

• As of Feb. 3, there are outbreaks at 31 AHS and Covenant Health acute care facilities across the province. 
• There are seven hospitals in the North zone, eight hospitals in the Edmonton zone, seven hospitals in the Central zone, six in the Calgary zone and three in the South zone affected.

School reopenings:

• Hinshaw said that as of Feb. 2, 19 schools in Alberta have needed to shift to online learning to address operational challenges due to COVID-19. 
• The University of Calgary announced on Jan. 14 that it is extending online classes until Feb. 19, with a return to in-person classes after Reading Week, beginning on Feb. 28.
• The University of Alberta is also delaying its return to in-person activities until Feb. 28.
• Students in Alberta headed back to class on Jan. 10. Education Minister Adriana LaGrange has promised thousands of test kits and medical-grade masks will be delivered to students and parents over the next few days.
• The Calgary Board of Education says it expects staffing shortages to persist as the fifth wave continues. On Jan. 18, more than 1,200 staff were absent, the board said. The number of absences is a 50 per cent increase over the previous three-year average for this point in time, the board said. Edmonton Public Schools reported more than 900 absences on Jan. 18. The board has hired an additional 29 temporary contract teachers to help cover off absences. 

Wastewater monitoring:

• Wastewater numbers in Calgary show a declining number of new COVID-19 infections. Data in Edmonton is less clearly in decline but still lower than its peak at the beginning of January. The data from a dashboard created by the University of Calgary Centre for Informatics show the average amount of COVID-19 detected in wastewater has trended downwards since a peak on Jan. 11 in Calgary.
• As the Alberta government scales back on widespread PCR testing to focus on those in high-priority settings, the province is now relying on wastewater surveillance more than ever before to track the prevalence of COVID-19 in Alberta.
• The province's wastewater — and the amount of infection in it — has been monitored for two years by a group of 23 researchers in a joint project with the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta.
• The data is updated publicly three times per week.
• It depicts the amount of SARS-CoV-2 RNA — the virus that causes COVID-19 — that's in the province's wastewater.
• The virus is shed in peoples' feces before symptoms arise, so values in the data associate strongest with cases occurring six days after the samples are collected.

Isolation times:

• As of Jan. 3, people with at least two doses of vaccine who test positive for COVID-19 need to isolate for only five days instead of 10. 
  • If symptoms continue past five days, fully vaccinated people must continue to isolate until feeling better.
  • If they're symptom free after five days, they must wear a mask around others at all times when they're outside their home.
  • The change does not apply to people who aren't fully vaccinated, who must continue to isolate for 10 days or until their symptoms end, whichever is longer.
  • Health Minister Jason Copping said the change followed evidence that suggests fully immunized people have shorter infectious periods. 
  • This change also follows the approach taken by Ontario and some other provinces, as well as the latest guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control in the United States, Copping said.
  • Exceptions will be provided for workplaces where disruption of service for 24 hours or more would be harmful to the public, and where there is no other way to continue the service except by bringing workers back before their isolation period has ended, Copping said. 
  • In these circumstances, additional public health measures will be required. For example, Copping said returning workers would not be allowed to remove their masks when in the same room as anyone else at any time.
• Hinshaw announced on Feb. 3 that the province will shorten the recommended quarantine period for unvaccinated, asymptomatic household contacts of confirmed cases. The quarantine will decrease to 10 days from 14.

Health restrictions:

• New public health restrictions in Alberta took effect on Dec. 24. They include:
  • Venues in the Restrictions Exemption Program that seat more than 1,000 people are to be at 50 per cent capacity. For venues with capacity of 500 to 1,000 occupants, 500 people is the limit. No food or drink can be consumed in these venues.
  • Restaurants, pubs and bars are to have a maximum table capacity of 10 people. Mingling between tables and interactive activities like dancing or billiards are not permitted.
• The tightened restrictions came after Kenney loosened private social gathering restrictions on Dec. 15, scrapping the rule that only people from two households can get together indoors. He said social gatherings could consist of people from any household, but shouldn't exceed 10 people (not counting those under age 18). He also dropped the requirement that everyone at indoor social gatherings be fully vaccinated.
• Alberta has had a restrictions exemption program, a voluntary vaccine passport system, in place as of Sept. 20 after suffering through a disastrous fourth wave of COVID-19. A full list of restrictions and exemptions is available on the government's website. 

Vaccinations:

• As of Jan. 28, Alberta placed second last of all provinces and territories in terms of the percentage of eligible people (ages five and up) who had received the COVID-19 vaccine, according to CBC's vaccine tracker. 
• According to Alberta Health, 74.6 per cent of the province's total population — or 79.4 per cent of eligible Albertans (ages five years and older) — have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. 
• 35.6 per cent of Albertans ages 5 and up have received a third, or booster, dose. Anyone 18 and older who received their second COVID-19 vaccine at least five months ago is urged to book a booster dose.
• As of Jan. 20, some immunocompromised people have access to a fourth dose of the vaccine, including transplant recipients and those receiving chemotherapy.

Which regions are being hit hardest:

Here is the latest detailed regional breakdown of active cases, as reported by the province on Feb. 2:

COVID in Alberta in charts and graphs:

Here are the latest Alberta COVID-19 stories: