Nearly 1,200 in hospital with COVID-19 as Alberta reports 3,592 new cases

Alberta reported 3,592 new lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Friday, bringing the number of active infections in the province to 61,615.

There are 1,191 people in hospital with COVID-19, an increase of 60 since Thursday’s count of 1,131. This includes including 107 in intensive care, a decrease of one since the previous day.

Of those in hospital, 21.16% have had three doses of vaccine, 42.4% have had two doses, and 5.12% have had one dose. Unvaccinated individuals make up 31.32% of COVID-19 hospitalizations.

Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, noted in a Twitter thread on Friday afternoon that it’s important to remember that the number of vaccinated people in Alberta is many times higher than the number of the unvaccinated.

Dr. Hinshaw said that, with the exponential spread of Omicron, more people are getting sick than at any other point in the pandemic, it is not surprising to see an increase of hospitalizations, even in individuals who have been partially or fully immunized.

“However,” wrote Dr. Hinshaw, “data shows vaccinated Albertans are at much less risk of getting severely ill.”

Looking at all age groups combined, in the last several months, those who do not have any vaccine protection were about 15 times more likely to be hospitalized than those with 3 doses, & 7 times more likely than those with 2 doses.(7/8)

— Dr. Deena Hinshaw (@CMOH_Alberta) January 21, 2022

As of January 20, 89.5% of Alberta’s eligible population over the age of 12 have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 85.7% have had two shots. There have also been 166,319 children aged five to 11 who have received their first dose of pediatric vaccine.

A total of 8,124,814 doses of vaccine have been administered in the province.

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Over the past 24 hours, eight new deaths caused by the virus were reported. This raises Alberta’s COVID-19 death toll to 3,429.

Including today’s new cases, there have been 466,616 COVID-19 infections confirmed in Alberta over the course of the pandemic, and 401,572 have since recovered.