Alberta builds COVID-19 hospital capacity; premier says early indication of Omicron peak
Alberta will create new pandemic response units in Edmonton and Calgary as it augments intensive and non-intensive care beds for an expected hospitalization peak later this month.
Premier Jason Kenney said the province would open the response units at the Kaye Edmonton Clinic and South Health Campus by Monday, or sooner if needed. The beds would be used for patients needing "non-significant" care and symptom monitoring.
"The Omicron waves of transmission have typically peaked four weeks after they began," Kenney said, adding that the province is about five weeks from the start of the latest wave of infections.
"We can reasonably expect that we may now be beginning on the downslope," he said.
According to Kenney, wastewater COVID-19 testing shows a "significant" decline in the prevalence of the virus in 15 of 19 communities, including Edmonton and Calgary.
The province reported 3,527 new infections and 264 more hospital admissions, raising the total number of patients receiving care to 1,131 — including 108 in intensive care. That marks the third-highest number of patients in hospital to date.
Eight more deaths were reported on Thursday, pushing the pandemic total to 3,421.
The premier says most jurisdictions have seen a two-week delay from their Omicron peak to the peak of hospitalizations. Kenney says he has "guarded optimism" that both peaks are coming.
To help ease staffing pressures for health-care workers, the province is working to provide community resources like virtual call-in lines and COVID-19 clinics in communities being affected by COVID-19 for those with mild to moderate symptoms.
"We want to avoid having a large number of those people going to emergency wards if they don't have to," Kenney said.
'WE WILL BE READY'
Jason Copping, health minister, said that Alberta Health Services data shows 55 per cent of new non-ICU admissions are due to COVID-19 and that 70 per cent of new ICU admissions are for the virus.
The remainder represents people who incidentally received COVID-19 while receiving care at a hospital.
Emerging data from AHS shows that most people hospitalized during the Omicron wave need only five days of care, compared to 10 when Delta was the dominant variant of concern.
Despite shorter stays and incidental infections, Copping said patients with COVID-19 still need care, and that hospital staff need to abide by protocols, creating staffing challenges.
Kenney said that the health system is operating at 89 per cent capacity, with some individual hospitals and health zones closer to 100 per cent of local capacity.
"We need to keep adapting as the virus changes," said Jason Copping, Copping said. "Any Albertan with COVID-19 who has needed admission to hospital over the past two years has received it. That despite the immense pressures that COVID-19 has put on our health system."
"Fortunately, the number of Albertans in ICU is still well below the total number of ICU patients that we cared for at the peak of the fourth wave, which was 313," said Dr. Verna Yiu, AHS president and CEO.
"Despite the somewhat positive news, we are seeing signs that our ICU teams can expect to see more patients needing their care in the coming weeks."
Yiu said inpatient occupancy is increasing in all health zones, alongside call volumes for EMS surging by 30 per cent and Health Link 811 soaring by more than 300 per cent compared to pre-pandemic times.
"We are seeing more of our own health-care workers become sick or have to quarantine," Yiu said, "means that our healthcare system is facing yet another serious challenge."
"We can meet this challenge," she said.
To help ease staffing pressures, 610 nursing students will join Alberta Health Services to help provide pandemic care. The students will be supervised by trained nurses and receive educational credit.
TOO EARLY FOR RESTRICTION EASE
Kenney said it is too early to say when restrictions will be lifted in the province, but hopes the province has seen the worst.
"We have to get past this Omicron," he said. "We have not yet reached the peak in hospitalizations. We have to support our health-care workers."
There are now more than 64,500 known active cases in the province. However, Alberta's chief medical officer of health estimates the true case count is more than 10 times that indicated by PCR results, as there are a number of restrictions on provincial PCR testing ability.
The next data update is scheduled for Friday.
OTHER COVID-19 RELATED NEWS
Supply of the newly approved COVID-19 treatment pill was shipped by the federal government on Thursday to Alberta and other provinces. A spokesperson for the Alberta government said it could receive as many as 3,200 treatment courses by the end of the week.
Businesses are reporting trouble staying open during the fifth wave of the pandemic and feel all they can do is "hope" the tail end of the wave is near.
Doctors say they are seeing more children admitted to hospital with COVID-19 than in previous waves.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
Saskatchewan households will continue to receive carbon tax rebate: Trudeau
Households in Saskatchewan will continue to receive Canada Carbon Rebate payments, despite the province refusing to remit natural gas levies to the federal government, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday.
'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer still haunted by death of Toronto police officer
'We hoped for this day, but we were scared that it would not never ever come because it took so long.' That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.
Senate expenses climbed to $7.2 million in 2023, up nearly 30%
Senators in Canada claimed $7.2 million in expenses in 2023, a nearly 30 per cent increase over the previous year.
Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko won't play in Game 2
The Vancouver Canucks will be without all-star goalie Thatcher Demko when they face the Nashville Predators in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.
Pedestrian, baby injured after stroller struck and dragged by vehicle in Squamish, B.C.
Police say a baby and a pedestrian suffered non-life-threatening injuries after a vehicle struck a baby stroller and dragged it for two blocks before stopping in Squamish, B.C.