Photo: Government of Alberta

By Shane Clausing

COVID update

COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to rise, Grande Prairie adds 35 new cases in last week

Apr 20, 2022 | 4:34 PM

Alberta Health says Grande Prairie recorded 35 new cases of COVID-19 over the last week, while in the County of Grande Prairie, there were 15 new cases confirmed since last Wednesday.

It is not known how many active COVID-19 cases there are in the city or county because of the move to weekly numbers.

The last week saw Alberta add 6,125 new cases following the completion of 24,745 tests, resulting in a test positivity rate of 24.7 per cent.

Across the province, hospitalizations grew by 73 in the last week to 1,126, while the number of patients with COVID-19 in the ICU fell slightly by three to 43.

In the North Zone, 115 people are in hospital, nobody is in the ICU.

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There were 49 COVID-19-related deaths reported across Alberta last week. This brings Alberta’s COVID-19 death toll to 4,190.

Full details and COVID-19 numbers can be found on the province’s website.

Minister of Health for Alberta Jason Copping says while COVID-19 hospitalizations are rising as a result of the B.A.1 variant, the provinces hospitals are still coping and aren’t seeing a difference from normal operations.

“COVID is no longer driving excess admissions above normal levels the way it’s done before. The total number of patients in hospitals has been stable in the last couple of months. COVID admissions have increased, but the total hasn’t,” explained.

“The total (number of patients in hospital) is within bed base overall and is normal for this time of year.”

While COVID-19 numbers remained mostly stable from last week’s update, Copping warned they’re still seeing signs from wastewater data that show COVID-19 is still spreading quickly in major centres.

“Wastewater levels are high in many locations, but they mostly remain below the levels we’ve seen previously during B.A.1,” he stated. “In Edmonton, the level is near the B.A.1 peak, but in Calgary, it’s slowly rising and in some regions, the levels are fluctuating or dropping.”

Copping finished his remarks on Wednesday by encouraging Albertans to get vaccinated or their third booster shot, adding it can and will help protect you.

“COVID has not gone away. The wastewater data shows there is still a lot of it around and if you’re not vaccinated, it remains a real risk,” he mentioned.

“Some people may be thinking, ‘I’ll wait and get that third dose if things get really bad again.’ Please don’t wait, if you’re eligible for another dose, please get it now.”

Alberta currently has the smallest percentage of third-dose vaccine uptake in Canada.