Alberta reports 12 deaths, 442 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday

EDMONTON -

Alberta has reported 442 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday after 7,786 tests were completed on Monday.

In her COVID-19 update, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, said there are 242 active alerts or outbreaks in schools in the province. Two of those schools had 10 or more students with COVID-19 who were at the school.

There are currently 836 people in hospital in Alberta with COVID-19, including 182 in intensive care. Hinshaw reported 12 people have died from the disease in the last 24 hours.

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Hinshaw called the decreasing number of hospitalizations “encouraging” as it is past the point in time where an increase directly due to Thanksgiving would have occurred.

“There is one small caveat… if there are significant spreading events on that particular date or on that weekend, it could potentially cross into multiple networks and sometimes we see a secondary impact,” said Hinshaw. “Right now we’re at that point in time where we’re monitoring for that.

“We know there’s still a lot of COVID out there and we do need to maintain caution.”

Hinshaw encouraged people who are fully vaccinated to remember that people who have not yet gotten a vaccine may have different reasons for not doing so.

“Good decision making is hard to do when we are in a strong emotional state like anger or fear, so whether we are fully vaccinated or not, the more we can listen respectfully to each other, without anger, the more possible it is to open space for ongoing dialogue and understanding each other’s perspectives,” said Hinshaw.

As of Tuesday, 6,482,574 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the province. Of Alberta's eligible population, 86.7 have had one dose of vaccine and 79.2 are fully vaccinated.

There have been around 505,000 vaccine doses administered in the past six weeks, which Hinshaw attributed to the Restrictions Exemption Program in the province.

She added that it is “much too soon” to begin easing restrictions “because we do not have the capacity to take any more surges in acute care admissions right now.”

Hinshaw will host a telephone town hall with two doctors from the University of Calgary on Wednesday between 6:15 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. She will be answering questions about vaccines, fertility and maternal health.

Anyone who wants to participate can register before noon Wednesday at Alberta.ca/townhall.