Seven deaths, 644 new COVID-19 cases in Alberta

EDMONTON – The province announced seven additional deaths and 644 new cases of the novel coronavirus Monday.

https://twitter.com/Tommy_Slick/status/1325929155293192192

In her update, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said these numbers continue to be concerning, and while it is lower than the numbers seen over the weekend, she cautioned Albertans that we are not out of the woods yet.

“This is a critical juncture, and we need to get our cases down to 100 new cases per day in our big cities, with a growth rate or R value of less than one,” Dr. Hinshaw said.

The transmission rate continues to grow in Edmonton and while it has gone down a little bit in Calgary, it still remains over one.

Six of the seven deaths were from the Edmonton zone, one was in the Calgary zone.

The deaths included:

• A man in his 80s from Edmonton Zone. Not linked to Continuing Care.
• A woman in her 80s linked to the outbreak at Covenant Care Chateau Vitaline in Edmonton Zone.
• A woman in her 90s linked to the outbreak at Good Samaritan Pembina Village in Edmonton Zone.
• A woman in her 60s linked to the outbreak at Edmonton General Care Centre in Edmonton Zone.
• A man in his 70s linked to the outbreak at Laurel Heights Retirement Residence in Edmonton Zone.
• A woman in her 90s linked to the outbreak at the South Terrace Continuing Care Centre in Edmonton Zone.
• A woman in her 90s linked to the outbreak at Extendicare Cedars Villa in Calgary Zone.

The total death count has increased by six to 369 as one of the previously-reported COVID-19 deaths was determined to be unrelated to the virus.

Hospitalizations are also still on the rise, with 192 receiving treatment and 39 people in the ICU.

ICU numbers are also a major concern, though Dr. Hinshaw said they cannot base any future restrictions solely on that number.

“We have crossed that 50 per cent ICU metric. What we have been doing over the past several weeks is, while we have been watching those metrics, we’ve been also watching the metrics like the overcapacity in different zone,” she said.

With continued talk of lockdowns continuing to spread around the province, Dr. Hinshaw said they don’t want to rush to any brash moves although nothing can be ruled out right now. It follows a letter sent by doctors calling for a “circuit breaker” which would include a short lockdown of only a couple of weeks to slow the spread.

“I think the circuit breaker idea is an interesting one,” Dr. Hinshaw said, adding that this is similar to what has been announced in British Columbia. “When we’re looking at all of our options, we know that there is no one perfect way to manage our COVID-19 experience, we need to look at all options on the table including that circuit breaker.”

Hinshaw said while some growth in the virus has been slowed, there’s still a lot more ground to make up so she doesn’t want to make it seem like a lockdown is not being considered.

But the focus from the province stays on advising people against attending large social gatherings, which are driving the spread for the most part. That said, while there are also a large amount of untraceable cases in Alberta Hinshaw is confident the current strategy is the right way to go.

“What we have seen in terms of our trends where we can trace the source, it’s very similar to what other provinces are seeing. Even those provinces that have fewer unsourced cases than us.”

Hinshaw believes people who have not been affected by the virus — either by not being infected or not knowing anyone who has been infected — are driving the spread as well, and she said the key moving forward is making sure you never get infected.

Also, the virus is spreading more in vulnerable communities in Calgary as Dr. Hinshaw revealed that an outbreak at the Drop-In Centre has infected 11 people, while Alpha House also has two cases linked to its downtown shelter and five more connected to transitional housing that Alpha House manages.

Alberta health officials are working to stop it from spreading further and offering any supports that are needed.

There are 7,965 active cases in the province.

Thirteen thousand tests were done yesterday with a five per cent positivity rate.

There are alerts/outbreaks at 285 schools (12%)

911 active cases in total.

57 schools are on watch list.

123 schools have had in-school transmission.#yeg #yyc #ableg #covid19ab

— Courtney Theriault (@cspotweet) November 9, 2020

There are alerts or outbreaks at 285 of Alberta’s schools, with 911 active cases in total. Nearly 60 schools are on the watch list and 123 schools have had in-school transmission.

Finally, on the news Monday that there are some encouraging signs about a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Pfizer, Dr. Hinshaw said while this is good news she does not want people to start making bad decisions in the hopes that the vaccine will be ready very soon, when in fact it will still be many months.

“A few months within the life cycle of how COVID transmits can be a complete game changer,” she said. “It is good news and we are watching those vaccine developments closely, but a few months away is a bit of a lifetime away in terms of being able to change our behaviours right now.”