Alberta COVID hospitalizations near 1,500 as province reports 15 new deaths

Alberta reported 15 new COVID-19 deaths on Friday, bringing the province's total to 3,531. Two previously reported deaths were removed from the province's total. 

In the past week, the province has reported an increase of 102 deaths related to COVID-19 as the province's rate of new deaths continues to rise.

The province also reported 1,496 people with COVID were being treated in hospital as of Friday, an increase of 27 from the previous day. Included in the 1,496 are 105 people being treated in intensive care.

Over the past week the number of hospitalizations has grown from 1,191, though the number of ICU admissions has been stable, as there were 107 people with COVID in ICU last Friday.

Another 3,036 new cases of COVID-19 were reported Friday, detected through 8,655 PCR tests with a positivity rate around 35.97 per cent — slightly lower than the seven-day average of 37.2 per cent.

The number of lab-confirmed active cases is now 41,300. However, the case numbers only include those who test positive with a PCR test, which most Albertans do not have access to.

As of the province's latest update, about 80.3 per cent of Albertans have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 74.1 per cent have had two and 32.4 per cent have had three.