Omicron cases in Alberta are up 2,116% from this time last week

Alberta’s Omicron COVID-19 cases have ballooned in the province, increasing by more than 2,000% since this time last week.

“It’s spreading farther and faster than anything we’ve ever seen before,” said Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw on Thursday afternoon.

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Last Thursday, December 16, Alberta reported 59 new cases of the Omicron variant, bringing the provincial total to 119 cases. There was 82 cases in the Calgary zone, and 19 in the Edmonton zone.

Since then the provincial tally has swelled to 2,637 cases, an increase of 2,116%. There are now 1,583 Omicron cases in the Calgary zone and 927 in the Edmonton zone. There’s also 55 cases in the North zone, 40 in the Central zone, 31 in the South zone and one case that is unknown.

Hinshaw added that Omicron has a doubling time of two to three days, similar to what other provinces are seeing as well.

According to the Alberta government’s tally of variant cases, Omicron is set to surpass the Gamma variant as the third most infectious variant in the province, after the Delta and Alpha variants.

Alberta Government

On Thursday, Alberta reported 1,625 new COVID-19 cases, including 506 Omicron cases.

Alberta reported its first case of Omicron on November 30.