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COVID-19

Alberta COVID-19 reporting process changes, following Hinshaw apology

Oct 14, 2021 | 5:26 PM

The province’s chief officer of health apologized to the family of the 14-year-old whose death was reported on Tuesday, saying the family’s pain was compounded by public debate about the circumstances of the death.

“I am sorry if the way that I spoke about that death made your grief worse,” said Dr. Deena Hinshaw on Thursday.

She said that she often reflects on the impact the reporting process and updates and the pandemic response has on those who have lost loved ones.

She said she does not intend to diminish the losses whether caused by COVID or anything else.

“At the same time, we are in a global pandemic. We have an obligation to monitor and report deaths from COVID-19 infection and to be as timely and transparent as possible.”

Hinshaw said reporting always includes all deaths that have COVID as either primary or secondary cause of death, according to the healthcare teams involved.

She said a primary cause could be COVID progressing to pneumonia that is the direct cause of death. A secondary cause could be someone with an underlying illness such as heart failure gets COVID and the infection makes their pre-existing condition worse, leading to death.

She said the province is reporting that way to accurately capture the impact COVID-19 is having.

Hinshaw also explained that any reporting system has a tug-of-war between precision and timeliness, saying the more precise it is, the slower it is.

“We have chosen to focus as timely as possible in the interests of transparency,” she said, adding sometimes the initial information provided changes after a review, as was the case on Tuesday.

“While the initial report of the death of the 14-year-old included COVID as a secondary cause, we have now received additional information that indicated that COVID was not a cause of death,” Hinshaw said.

She said changes are being made to prevent similar situations in the future and that COVID deaths of anyone under 18 won’t be publicly reported until the review process is complete.

Dr. Verna Yiu, President, and CEO of AHS said pressures are continuing to slowly ease on hospitals and ICUs.

As of Thursday, ICUs were at 76 per cent occupancy, with 97 spaces available throughout the province. Yiu said that one month ago ICUs were at almost 90 per cent capacity and ICU admissions were increasing.

Yiu said she is cautiously optimistic.

“We are grateful that the numbers appear to be falling, but we know that this trend can be reversed easily, especially if we become complacent,” she said. “And we remain uncertain of the potential impact from the Thanksgiving long weekend.”

She added that healthcare teams remain under constant strain and that while the numbers look positive, “the pressures in the hospital remains high.”