COVID-19 in Alberta: Death count grows by 39 as hospitalizations show signs of slowing

Alberta’s COVID-19 death count grew by 39 over the weekend, according to the province’s latest data update on Monday.

The deaths were in individuals ranging in age from in their 30s to more than 80 years old and bring the total number of COVID-19 in deaths in Alberta up to 3,673.

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Delays in death reporting mean the dates of death are spread out across several days. The province is now averaging about 12 deaths per day over the past seven days, with 81 people having died in the last week.

Monday’s report included weekend data from Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The number of patients in hospitals with COVID-19 remained high on Monday but also showed signs of slowing from the record pace of last week.

The latest count has 1,542 patients in hospital. It’s the 12th highest number to date, but is also likely to rise in the coming days pending data revisions.

The 21 highest patient counts have all come in the last 21 days, but preliminary counts have also now fallen under 1,500 for the past two days.

The number of patients in intensive care units grew to 118 and has remained between 102 and 122 since Jan. 16.

Hospitalization data is routinely revised for accuracy and to account for reporting delays.

Wednesday’s count from 1,660 was among the revised data on Monday, as it was increased to a new pandemic record of 1,673. Friday’s initial count of 1,584 was also revised up to 1,628.

There are now more than 30,000 known active cases in the province with just over 4,600 new cases reported over the weekend.

Limits to testing capacity and eligibility mean the actual number of new and active COVID-19 infections is much higher.

Alberta has now administered more than eight million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, with 80.6 per cent of the population having had at least one dose and 74.9 per cent having had two shots.

More than a third of Albertans, 33.9 per cent, have now also received a third dose. And, more than 250,000 doses have been administered to children aged between five and 11 years old.

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 Tuesday.