Ten more people in Alberta have died of COVID-19 , according to provincial health authorities who also reported Friday that 1,473 new cases of the disease had been identified.
As of Friday afternoon, Alberta Health said 686 people were in hospital because of COVID-19 with 169 of those in ICUs. The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations rose by seven over the previous 24 hours while coronavirus-related ICU admissions jumped by 15 in the same time frame.
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Alberta Health told Global News that as of Thursday, 1.8 per cent of COVID-19 hospitalizations involved people under 18 years of age.
The continued rise in hospitalizations comes as the province’s hospitals are already strained because of a surge in COVID-19 cases during the fourth wave of the pandemic.
Alberta Health Services has said its baseline ICU capacity is 173 beds. An additional 93 surge beds have been added to meet the rising care needs.
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As of Thursday afternoon, ICU capacity across Alberta was at 87 per cent.
“Remember, that includes surge beds,” said AHS CEO Dr. Verna Yiu. “If we had not added additional surge beds, we’d be over 130 per cent.”
Of the COVID-19 deaths announced on Friday, Alberta Health said four were from the Calgary zone: a man in his 60s with pre-existing conditions, a woman in her 90s with pre-existing conditions, and two men in their 90s with pre-existing conditions.
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Two of the fatalities were in the Edmonton zone: a woman in her 80s with pre-existing conditions and a man in his 90s with pre-existing conditions.
Two of the deaths were in the North zone: a man in his 80s with pre-existing conditions and a woman in her 80s with no known pre-existing conditions.
A man in his 60s with pre-existing conditions died in the Central zone while a man in his 80s with pre-existing conditions died in the South zone.
With the new cases announced Friday, Alberta’s totally number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 16,265 on Friday afternoon. Of active cases, 4,814 are in the Edmonton zone, 4,485 are in the Calgary zone, 2,952 are in the North zone, 2,313 are in the Central zone, 1,669 are in the South zone and 32 are not linked to any particular zone.
On Thursday, Alberta had a test positivity rate of 10.93 per cent.
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