By Josh Hall (rdnewsNOW) and Chris Brown (CHAT News Today)

Hinshaw: All provinces shifting from pandemic to endemic

Feb 15, 2022 | 5:06 PM

Alberta is again shifting to an endemic response to COVID-19, as the fifth wave shows signs of subsiding.

Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, said all provinces are making the same shift.

A joint statement was issued yesterday by all chief medical officers of health highlighting the beginning of the move.

“After nearly two years of requirements to modify the way we have lived, worked and socialized to help reduce transmission of the virus and help protect each other, it’s going to take time and effort to adjust away from mandates and towards personal risk assessments and actions,” said Hinshaw.

She said for some this transition will be quick and easy while for others it will be much more challenging. She said there is no one right way to respond to the changes.

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Health Minister Jason Copping says wastewater data from Edmonton, Calgary and Banff clearly shows that the Omicron wave is past its peak in Alberta.

He says that doesn’t mean they will stay low, or that another wave and variant might not appear.

“It can come in again. In fact, we should assume it will,” Copping said at the Tuesday COVID update.

Wastewater figures are also declining in Red Deer. The latest statistics for Feb. 10 showed 254.67 viral copies per millilitre of wastewater, down from 257.53 on Jan. 31.

In Lacombe, numbers were sky high at 2,173.29 on Feb. 3, and dipped to 185.34 on Feb. 8, but are up again to 427.8 as of Feb. 10.

Wastewater data is a leading indicator, said Copping, but a risk the province must manage and is basing easing restrictions on..

He said the province is prepared for an increase in hospitalizations and that, “there is currently no basis to expect that wave of hospitalizations to happen.”

Copping said the number of COVID patients in hospitals has been on a downward trend since Feb. 7 and should continue to drop as daily admissions have begun to drop.

In the last seven days, COVID was the primary or a contributing factor in 70.5 per cent of non-ICU hospitalizations and 84.5 per cent of ICU admissions.

Hinshaw announced she will be taking two weeks off, leaving the health minister to provide regular updates. There will be no COVID media update on Thursday.

She also announced anyone 55 years or older who is unvaccinated or has had one dose of vaccine is now eligible for Paxlovid or Sotrovimab treatment.