By Chris Brown / CHAT News Today

Alberta officials provide first COVID-19 update in a week

Jan 4, 2022 | 5:11 PM

The premier and chief medical officer of health are urging people to consider the larger health-care picture as Alberta is reporting close to 20,000 new cases of COVID-19 since the last full update on Dec. 29.

Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 are also on the rise again, up to 436 from 371 in Thursday’s preliminary estimate.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw said Ontario is an example of why we need to take action even though risk seems to be individually lower with Omicron.

“With case counts far exceeding anything we have ever seen before, the sheer volume of cases means that daily hospitalizations are beginning to escalate,” said Hinshaw.

She said the actions Albertans take now are critical as it’s too soon to know how Omicron will impact the province. She said changes people make now will impact case counts and therefore hospitalizations.

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Hinshaw said people need to think not just about the physical system, but the people who up the health-care system.

“Frontline health-care workers have experienced the trauma of repeated waves over the past two years, and each wave takes an additional toll. Our actions now will make a substantial difference to the resilience and capacity of our health-care system, not just in the next few weeks but in the long-term as burnout and fatigue are very real and will not be gone overnight.”

One of the deaths announced by Hinshaw at the Tuesday update was a child between the ages of five and nine years old with a complex medical history.

Premier Jason Kenney said that even a small percentage of a very large number of people requiring hospital care can put our health-care system under real pressure

“Today we are reporting more than 30,000 active cases, and that’s defined as people who have tested positive on a PCR test,” he said. “But we know the actual number is much higher with a positivity rate of 30 per cent. And that’s why we do expect to see hospitalizations rise in the weeks ahead.”

Saying we need to make use of every tool available to fight the fifth wave, Kenney appealed to the federal government to authorize the use of the Pfizer COVID antiviral pill, Paxlovid.

Kenney said it can be used for mild to moderate COVID-19 in those 12 years and older in a high risk of progression to a more serious situation like hospitalization.