Alberta COVID-19 hospitalization numbers declining; 18 deaths added, 23 removed from total

A man wears a face mask as he walks along a street in Montreal, Wednesday, December 30, 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues in Canada and around the world. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

Alberta now has 778 people in hospital with COVID-19, 29 of whom are receiving care in ICUs.

That is a decrease of 78 hospitalizations. The number of ICU admissions has not changed since last week's update.

Alberta Health data is routinely updated for accuracy and to account for reporting delays. Last week’s hospital numbers were retroactively increased from 856 to 896 and ICU admissions from 29 to 32.

According to the province, 309 of the 896 people in hospital with COVID-19 last week were hospitalized for reasons directly related to the virus, while the other 587 people were admitted for other reasons, but incidentally tested positive. In the ICU, 31 per cent of patients were being treated because of COVID-19.

Alberta’s total number of COVID-19-related deaths went down by five.

This is because 18 deaths were added, while 23 deaths were retroactively removed from the provincial total, taking it from 5,470 last week, to 5,465 this week.

One death was removed from 2020, two deaths were added to 2021, 22 deaths were removed from 2022, while 16 were added this year.

Nine of the new deaths belong to this week.

Since its last data update, Alberta Health has counted 648 new COVID-19 cases in 5,400 PCR tests. That is a decrease of 194 cases and 1,069 tests compared to last week's update.

The number of new cases is likely higher because of testing limitations and because the province doesn't count positive results from rapid tests.

The average positivity rate is now at 12.15 per cent.

HOW DOES IT COMPARE?

On Jan. 23, 2021, 616 Albertans were hospitalized with COVID-19. In 2022, 1,404 patients were in hospital with the virus while there were 778 people this year.

In both 2021 and 2022, there were 111 people with COVID-19 in intensive care on Jan. 23, compared to this year's 29.

It is not known how many people in 2020 and 2021 were hospitalized and admitted to the ICU because of the virus versus people who were admitted for other reasons and incidentally tested positive, as that statistic was only made available by Alberta Health as of February 2022.

Alberta had 1,213 COVID-19-related deaths in 2020 and 2,106 in 2021.

Alberta Health’s COVID-19 data update Wednesday retroactively removed 22 deaths from 2022's death toll, bringing the total number to 2,099.

There have been 47 COVID-19-related deaths in the first 23 days of this year.

The next data update is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 1.