COVID-19 in Alberta: 14 deaths as hospitalizations continue to trend downward

Alberta’s COVID-19 death count grew by 14 on Wednesday, including that of a person in their 20s from the South Zone, while the number of patients in hospital continued to gradually trend downward, according to Wednesday’s data update.

Seventy-nine Albertans have now died due to COVID-19 over the past seven days.

The deaths reported on Wednesday were spread across several days and bring the total number of COVID-19 deaths up to 3,804. The death of the person in their 20s was the 24th of a person under 30 since the start of the pandemic.

• Infographics: COVID-19 in Alberta by the numbers
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The remaining deaths were in individuals ranging in age from in their 40s to more than 80 years old.

The latest initial count of patients with COVID-19 in hospital sits at 1,500, but is also likely to rise slightly in the coming days due to routine data revisions for accuracy and reporting delays.

Tuesday’s count, initially reported as 1,538, was revised to 1,561.

The 30 highest patient counts have all come in the last 30 days, including a record-high 1,676 on Feb. 7.

The seven-day average of hospitalizations has trended down for more than a week now.

Friday’s patient count includes 121 in intensive care units, a decrease of seven over the last seven days. The ICU patient count has held steady between 103 and 134 since Jan. 17.

There are now just over 17,600 known active cases in Alberta after 888 new cases were confirmed Wednesday. Limits to testing capacity and eligibility mean the actual number of cases is many times higher.

Unvaccinated Albertans are outnumbered nearly four-to-one by those who have had at least a first shot of vaccine, but remain many times more likely to experience a severe outcome due to COVID-19 including hospitalization or death.

Alberta has now administered more than eight million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, with 80.7 per cent of the population having had at least one dose and 75.4 per cent having had two shots.

More than a third of Albertans, 34.8 per cent, have now also received a third dose. And, close to 268,000 doses have been administered to children aged between five and 11 years old.

The next data update is scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

The province’s data dashboard will not be updated on the upcoming Family Day Monday. Figures from over the long weekend will be updated on Tuesday.