COVID-19 in Alberta: 4 highest hospitalizations counts have all occurred in last 4 days

The four highest counts of patients in Alberta hospitals with COVID-19 have all occurred over the last four days, according to the province’s latest data update. 

There are now a pandemic-high 1,191 COVID-19 patients in hospital, an increase of 277, or 30 per cent, from a week ago.

That 1,191 also includes 107 patients in intensive care units, an increase of 25 from a week ago. 

• Infographics: COVID-19 in Alberta by the numbers
• COVID-19 in Edmonton: Numbers broken down by neighbourhood

Also on Friday, the province reported eight more COVID-19 deaths. They were of individuals ranging in age from in their 50s to more than 80 years old and bring the total number of COVID-19 deaths up to 3,429. 

There are now more than 61,000 known active cases in the province with more than 3,500 new cases reported over the last day.

Last 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 than indicated by PCR results.

 Alberta has now administered more than eight million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, with 80 per cent of the population having had at least one dose and 73.5 per cent having had two shots. 

More than 30 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 are many times more likely to experience a severe outcome due to COVID-19 including hospitalization or death. 

The next data update is scheduled for Monday and will include weekend data from Friday, Saturday and Sunday.