Alberta reports 791 new COVID-19 cases as numbers continue to trend downward
Alberta reported 791 new lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 today, putting the number of active infections in the province at 11,189 and the positivity rate at about 27%.
Due to technical difficulties, the province only reported approximate case counts on Tuesday following the Family Day long weekend. On Wednesday, the Alberta government provided more accurate data.
There were 817 cases reported on February 18, 520 infections on February 19, 509 on February 20, and 497 additional cases on February 21, for a total of 2,343 new lab-confirmed infections over the four-day period.
Including today’s new infections, there have been a total of 523,104 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Alberta over the course of the pandemic, and 508,032 have since recovered.
Over the past 24 hours, 13 additional deaths due to the virus were reported, raising Alberta’s COVID-19 death toll to 3,883.
During a Wednesday afternoon press conference, Health Minister Jason Copping said that he was pleased to announce that almost all indicators continue to trend downward.
“After a difficult fifth wave that brought so much uncertainty over the past few months, this is very welcome news,” Copping shared.
Indicators include positivity rates for lab-confirmed cases, the number of active infections, hospitalizations, and the number of schools that have had to shift to online learning to address operational challenges.
Copping said that there are 68% fewer active cases today compared to the beginning of February and that one week ago, there were 1,500 Albertans in hospital with or due to COVID-19, including 121 in intensive care. Today, Copping noted there are a total of 1,373 people in hospital, with 90 in ICU.
“This decrease is a positive sign that pressure is easing on our healthcare system and hopefully a beginning of relief for our hardworking healthcare workers,” Copping continued.
The health minister added that Alberta Health Services is currently completing about 95% of normal surgical volume.
According to numbers from the province, of those in hospital, 29.28% have had three doses of vaccine, 35.25% have had two doses, and 5.17% have had one dose. Unvaccinated individuals make up 30.3% of COVID-19 hospitalizations.
As of February 22, 90.1% of Alberta’s eligible population over the age of 12 have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 86.5% have had two shots. There have been 184,825 children aged five to 11 who have received at least one dose of pediatric vaccine.
A total of 8,478,187 doses of vaccine have been administered in the province.
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