COVID-19 in Alberta: 15 deaths as hospitalizations, ICU patient counts continue to grow

Fifteen more Albertans have died due to COVID-19 while the number of coronavirus patients in hospital and intensive care units continues to grow on Wednesday.

The deaths bring the total number of COVID-19 deaths in Alberta up 3,367.

There are now 748 patients in hospital with COVID-19, an increase of 219 over the past week. Similarly, the 82 patients in intensive care units is up by 23 over the past seven days.

Historical hospitalization data is revised to improve accuracy and to account for reporting delays, but also limits the accuracy of day-over-day comparisions.

The province reported 6,789 new COVID-19 cases on 17,800 tests, and there are now more than 61,000 known active cases in the province.

This week, the province introduced a number of new restrictions to testing eligibility with its chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, estimating the true case count was more than 10 times that indicated by PCR results.

Close to eight million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Alberta to date with 79.8 per cent of all Albertans having had at least a first dose and 73.2 per cent having had a second dose.

More than a quarter of all Albertans, 27.2 per cent, have also had a booster dose.

Compared to those with two doses, unvaccinated Albertans remain multiple times more likely to suffer a severe outcome such as hospitalization or death.

The next data update is scheduled for Thursday.