Alberta Premier Jason Kenney speaks during a news conference on April 22 (Photo: Government of Alberta)

By Troy Gillard

70 PEOPLE IN HOSPITAL AS OF WEDNESDAY

Low number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Alberta has premier cautiously optimistic

Apr 22, 2020 | 5:34 PM

The relatively low number of hospitalizations in Alberta from COVID-19 has the province’s premier looking ahead, albeit cautiously.

There are currently 70 people in hospital for virus-related cases as of Wednesday, with 18 admitted to ICU. Hospitalizations have risen but are still well below modelling projections released by the province two weeks ago.

“Overall Albertans are still doing a very good job of containing and managing this pandemic,” Jason Kenney said Wednesday. “If we stay vigilant and disciplined about practicing rigorous personal hygiene, staying home as much as possible and maintaining physical distancing, wearing a face covering in crowded spaces and following all of the other public health orders, we’ll be able to look at cautiously restarting the economy as soon as possible on the advice of our public health officials.”

Kenney said he will meet with the relaunch working group on Thursday and hopes to release more details next week.

Knowing people are getting increasingly impatient, Kenney again said there is a risk to re-opening the economy too soon.

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“If we let the virus loose we would lose the value of all of the sacrifices we’ve made to date and we would simply have to shut down even more of our economy, more harshly and probably for a longer period of time causing even more damage,” he cautioned.

Still he believes there is light at the end of the tunnel for Alberta.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer, said there are two important indicators of when public health guidelines in the province may begin to be loosened.

“One is that we’re seeing stable or declining rates, particularly of hospitalization which is going to be our most stable indicator over time,” she said, adding stable or declining case numbers over one or two weeks would also be important.

All would be part of a larger examination of the pandemic, which would include where the cases or outbreaks are and the means to control a particular outbreak.

Alberta reported a total of 3,401 cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, an increase of more 306 from Tuesday.

(Written with file from Chris Brown, CHAT News Today)