Everything you need to know about COVID-19 in Alberta on Tuesday, Jan. 18

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

• Dr. Deena Hinshaw gave an update on COVID-19 in the province on Tuesday. 
• Some immunocompromised people will now have access to a fourth dose of the vaccine, Hinshaw said. 
• Starting Jan. 20, people aged 18 and older who have specific immunocompromising conditions, including transplant recipients and those receiving chemotherapy, can receive a booster five months after receiving their third dose.
• Hinshaw said about 51 per cent of new non-ICU hospital admissions since last week are due to COVID. The other 49 per cent were cases where COVID was not a factor or where cause of admission could not be determined. 
• Of ICU admissions, 74 per cent are due to COVID and 26 per cent are incidental infections or unclear.
• Congregate living facilities like shelters and correctional facilities will once again be listed on outbreak lists, Hinshaw said. 
• WestJet announced Tuesday it will consolidate 20 per cent of its scheduled flights from Feb. 1 to Feb. 28. The cancellations are in addition to the 15 per cent of flights it cut from its schedule in January, the airline said, and are due to the Omicron variant's impact on staffing and "barriers to international travel."
• Seven per cent of all inmates who were inside Alberta provincially run correctional facilities since the start of the pandemic have tested positive for COVID-19.
• The province ranks highest per capita of all the provinces and territories for inmate positivity rates, according to information compiled since the start of the pandemic by a University of Ottawa criminology professor as part of the Criminalization and Punishment Education Project.
• Alberta Health Minister Jason Copping said on social media Monday that he has tested positive for COVID-19. He said that after displaying mild symptoms last week, he took a rapid test, which was positive, and he is now isolating at home.

The latest numbers:

• Alberta COVID-19 infections are at record highs as the highly infectious Omicron variant spreads through the province. The following numbers were released Jan. 18:
• Hospitalizations:
  • There were 1,089 people with COVID in Alberta hospitals on Jan. 18. A week earlier, on Jan. 11, there were 825 infected patients in hospital.
  • There were 104 people with COVID in intensive care on Jan. 18, compared with 84 on Jan. 11.
  • As of Jan. 17, provincial ICU capacity (including additional surge beds) was at 82 per cent. Without the additional surge spaces, provincial ICU capacity would be at 114 per cent.
  • Emerging data from other jurisdictions indicates Omicron may not hit intensive care units as the Delta variant did but will likely impact other areas of the health-care system in emergency wards and ambulatory care.
• Positivity rates:
  • Alberta's positivity rate on Jan. 18 was around 39 per cent, much higher than seen in earlier waves.
  • The province reported nine more COVID deaths on Jan. 18. They also amended a death announced Monday. The province previously said a child between the ages of five and nine who died of COVID did not have pre-existing conditions when in fact the child did.
  • Case counts:
    • 3,279 new cases reported to Alberta Health out of 8,995 tests. 
    • Alberta has 70,223 active cases of COVID-19.
    • 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.

Acute care outbreaks:

• As of Jan. 18, there are outbreaks at 21 AHS and Covenant Health acute care facilities across the province. 
• There are four hospitals in the north zone, seven hospitals in the Edmonton zone, three hospitals in the central zone, five in the Calgary zone and two in the south zone affected. 
• Drumheller Health Centre, one of the hospitals affected, has temporarily postponed inpatient surgical procedures due to the outbreak at the centre, AHS said Jan. 11. Day surgeries will continue as scheduled.

School reopenings:

• 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 winter break for K-Grade 12 students was extended to Jan. 10 as COVID-19 case numbers surged.
• Because of the disruption to learning, January diploma exams have been cancelled.
• Students in grades 4 to 9 will be able to access free, prerecorded, online tutoring resources starting this week to help them catch up on skills and learning they may have missed.
• Later this year, that tutoring will be expanded to more subjects and will include live tutoring. 
• School authorities will continue to be able to shift classes or grades to at-home learning for short periods of time to address outbreaks. 
• 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. 

Testing:

• Copping said Wednesday only 500,000 of the 16 million rapid antigen tests promised by Ottawa have arrived and that the balance of the 10 million from private suppliers is also tied up in delays and global supply chain bottlenecks.
• Many Albertans have been struggling in the past two weeks to get their hands on rapid tests. The tests were first available on a widespread basis before the holidays and Albertans can access them for free on a first-come, first-serve basis through participating pharmacies and AHS locations.
• Effective Jan. 10, PCR tests are available only for select groups, which includes health-care workers, correctional facility staff and returning international travellers — in order to screen for new variants. Previously, lab-based PCR tests were also available to those who did not have access to rapid tests.
• Hinshaw says with the positivity rate near 40 per cent, transmission is higher than it's ever been before and the province likely has 10 times or more COVID-19 cases than are being diagnosed through PCR tests.

Wastewater monitoring:

• 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.
•  Dr. Michael Parkins, one of the research leads, said on Jan. 7 that it's important not to overinterpret individual data points, such as apparent drops in infection, but rather understand trends over time. 
• "Our data trends up, up, up.... I don't think we've seen the peak yet," he said.

WATCH | How researchers use wastewater to monitor COVID-19 spread:

How researchers use wastewater to monitor COVID-19 spread in Alberta

3 years ago

Duration 2:27

As the Alberta government scales back on widespread PCR testing, focusing on those in high-priority settings, the province is now relying on wastewater surveillance for COVID-19 more than ever.

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.

Health restrictions:

• Premier Jason Kenney says Alberta will not be following Quebec's plan to impose a financial penalty on those who refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19. He says data shows the unvaccinated are proving to be a vastly greater burden on the hospital system than the vaccinated, but making them pay extra would not be fair.
• The leaders of Alberta's largest public and private sector unions called in an open letter on Jan. 11 for drastic lockdown measures immediately to fight the spiralling COVID-19 Omicron variant. But a spokesperson Kenney says the United Conservative government is following and acting on the scientific data and that such restrictions are not being considered.
• 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. 18, Alberta placed 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. 
  • 73 per cent of the province's total population — or 76.8 per cent of eligible Albertans (ages five years and older) — have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to CBC's vaccine tracker. 
  • 79.7 per cent of the province's total population, and 83.5 per cent of those ages five and older, have received at least one dose.
• The province said as of Jan. 3, more than one million people have had a booster shot. But an additional two million Albertans have received their first two doses and are eligible for a booster. Anyone aged 18 and older who received their second COVID-19 vaccine at least five months ago is being urged to book a booster dose.
• The City of Calgary's mobile COVID vaccination program is continuing until at least Jan. 17, and will be providing booster shots at various locations around Calgary. It was slated to end on Dec. 31, but the city said Monday it has received additional vaccine supply from the province.

Which regions are being hit hardest:

Here is the latest detailed regional breakdown of active cases, as reported by the province on Jan. 18:

• Calgary zone: 33,975. 
• Edmonton zone: 24,985.
• Central zone: 4,357.
• North zone: 3,133.
• South zone: 3,033.
• Unknown: 740.

COVID in Alberta in charts and graphs:

Here are the latest Alberta COVID-19 stories: