Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 are on the rise in Alberta.
There were 549 people in hospital with COVID-19 on Friday. Of those, 125 are being treated in intensive care. That’s a jump from Thursday, when 518 Albertans were in hospital with COVID-19.
The increase comes as Alberta reported 1,690 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday and five additional deaths from the disease.
Alberta Health said 1,184 variant cases of concern were identified in the previous 24 hours. Variants now make up 60.4 per cent of active COVID-19 cases in Alberta.
Of the five deaths reported Friday, four were in the Calgary zone. A woman in her 60s, a woman in her 70s and a woman in her 80s died. A man in his 90s linked to the outbreak at Extendicare Hillcrest also died.
A woman in her 70s in the Central zone also died. All five deaths reported Friday included comorbidities, according to Alberta Health.
Alberta’s death toll from COVID-19 has reached 2,059.
Earlier Friday, Health Minister Tyler Shandro was pressed about whether additional restrictions would be announced amid what Alberta’s chief medical officer of health referred to as “concerning” numbers Thursday.
Shandro said while tightened restrictions are a possibility, Dr. Deena Hinshaw has not put forward any recommendations to the province’s emergency management cabinet committee.
Shandro said the data will be monitored closely, but also noted that this spike in cases was anticipated when additional restrictions were announced more than two weeks ago.
“We knew that this was going to be the storm before the calm… as we went into a transition period as the vaccine rollout continued,” he said. “The people who are identifying as positive today, this is going back to the Easter long weekend.
“We knew that this was going to happen. We made it very public that even after we tightened restrictions, that we were going – for two or three weeks – to see continued increases in cases. This is the evidence that we’re looking at and following.”
After Alberta identified its first case of the B.1.617 variant Thursday, one infectious disease expert said there isn’t much data on that particular strain and it’s too soon to say whether this strain could become dominant in Alberta.
The B.1.617 variant, which being treated as a “variant of interest,” was first identified in India. Hinshaw said Thursday the case was identified in a returning interprovincial traveller.
Dr. Chris Mody, the head of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the University of Calgary, said there is a similar strain that emerged in California that has at least one of the two mutations that the B.1.617 strain has.
He said that strain is not as transmissible as the B.1.1.7. strain, which was first identified in the U.K. Mody said it is similar to or less transmissible than that strain.
“To really see a variant take over, it would have to be more transmissible than the U.K. variant and it looks like this strain — it’s early days and it’s difficult to know how much the second mutation, because the B.1.617 strain has two mutations — whether or not it will turn out to be more transmissible and be a better virus, affect more people than the conventional strain that we’re seeing — so the U.K. variant we’re seeing now,” he said.
“It’s difficult to tell whether this B.1.617 strain is actually going to take over or not. It may not and, in that case, public health measures and the usual things we are doing are going to be sufficient.”
Also Friday, Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) announced it is lowering its age recommendation for Oxford-AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine to younger age groups.
NACI now recommends the vaccine be used in people 30 years of age and older, “if the individual does not wish to wait for an mRNA vaccine and the benefits outweigh the risks,” said Shelley Deeks, NACI’s vice-chair.
Previously, NACI’s guidance said the shot should only be used on those aged 55 and older.
Following the announcement, Alberta’s health minister said the province will not be able to offer the AstraZeneca vaccine to the 30-plus age group yet due to supply issues.
“With approximately 112,000 doses remaining at pharmacies and AHS sites, and over 100,000 appointments booked in the next 14 days, and no future shipments confirmed, we will continue administering doses to those 40 and older at this time,” Tyler Shandro said on Twitter.
As of Friday, there were 19,446 active cases of COVID-19 in Alberta. Of those, 8,397 were in the Calgary zone, 5,307 cases were in the Edmonton zone, 2,717 were in the North zone, 2,035 were in the Central zone, 954 were in the South zone and 39 were not tied to any particular zone.
As of April 22, Alberta had administered 1,319,837 doses of COVID-19, and 260,231 Albertans had been fully vaccinated with two doses.
With files from Julia Wong, Global News.
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