COVID-19 cases continue downward trend but caution still needed, says Alberta premier

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says the province is seeing good news on the COVID-19 front, but there is still a reason to be cautious.

On Thursday, before heading off to the National Governors Association annual meeting in Washington, D.C., Kenney joined Dr. Deena Hinshaw for a live COVID update.

WATCH: Alberta Premier Jason Kenney joins Dr. Deena Hinshaw to provide an update on COVID-19.

“We continue to see the positivity rate come down slowly, and certainly, the total number of active cases,” Kenney said. “Our wastewater data is also trending down in 14 of the 18 communities that we monitored.”

Currently, there are 44,301 PCR confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Alberta.

Kenney also says there is some optimism to be had when it comes to ICU numbers. He pointed to a slight decline in ICU admissions over the last day.

“We have today, 106 COVID patients in intensive care and 194 patients in intensive care overall. It’s worth noting that 28 per cent of the 106 COVID patients in intensive care are incidental COVID cases… they tested positive but they’re not there because of COVID,” he explained.

In total, there are now 1,469 people in hospital with COVID-19 — 40 per cent of which Kenney says are incidental.

Kenney says there are 1363 patients with COVID in hospital, with 40% of those incidental.

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Kenney compared current hospitalization numbers to the previous wave, saying in September, Alberta had 257 COVID patients in the ICU.

As for daily infections, Alberta identified 3,218 new cases on Thursday. The new cases come after more than 9,000 tests were completed for a positivity rate of around 34.7 per cent.

Hinshaw says over the last 24 hours, 14 new COVID-related deaths have been reported to Alberta Health.

Alberta’s top doctor also took time to announce a change in PCR testing for younger Albertans.

She says, effective immediately, children under the age of two are again able to get tested for COVID-19 through AHS assessment centers.

“This is a pragmatic approach since rapid tests are currently not licensed for use in children under the age of two,” she explained. “If a child is symptomatic and tests positive for COVID-19, they are required to isolate for 10 days. If they are symptomatic but test negative, they can leave isolation once their symptoms are resolved.”

Kenney confident measures could be loosened by end of March

During Thursday’s update, Kenney also said he wants to eliminate Alberta’s COVID-19 vaccine passport program as soon as it’s safe to do so.

Kenney says the government will move toward a widespread relaxation of public health measures once pressure on the health system and COVID-19 hospitalizations trend down.

He says he is confident those changes could come by the end of March.

The vaccine passport system in Alberta, called the Restrictions Exemption Program, permits businesses to operate with less restrictions if patrons provide proof of vaccination, negative test results or a medical exemption.

– With files from the Canadian Press