COVID-19 in Alberta: 22 more deaths as hospitalization records continue to fall

Nine of Alberta’s top 10 highest counts of hospitalized patients have come this January, according to the province’s latest data update released on Wednesday. 

Tuesday’s report of 1,377 COVID-19 patients in hospital was revised to a pandemic-high 1,443 on Wednesday. 

The province’s latest COVID-19 hospitalization patient count stands at 1,418 as of Wednesday afternoon but will likely be revised upwards in the coming days. 

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That 1,418 also includes 109 patients in intensive care units, the same number as the end of last week. 

Also on Wednesday, the province reported 23 more COVID-19 deaths spread across several days, with one death, a person in their 30s, removed. 

The deaths were of individuals ranging in age from in their 40s to more than 80 years old and bring the total number of COVID-19 deaths up to 3,505.

Seventy-six Albertans have died in the last seven days. 

There are now more than 47,000 known active cases in the province with more than 3,300 new cases reported over the weekend. 

Earlier this month, 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 than indicated by PCR results. 

Alberta has now administered more than eight million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, with 80.2 per cent of the population having had at least one dose and 73.9 per cent having had two shots. 

More than 31 per cent of Albertans have also received a third dose. 

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. 

The next data update is scheduled for Thursday.