Alberta confirmed 5,181 new cases of COVID-19 over the weekend, the province said Monday.
Out of 15,989 tests done Friday, 1,882 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed. On Saturday, 1,541 cases were identified out of 14,846 tests. On Sunday, 1,758 cases were confirmed from 15,037 tests.
The number of total active cases across the province rose to 21,307 Monday, up from 20,040 reported on Friday.
As of Monday, there were 1,063 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 265 of whom were being treated in ICU.
That’s a jump from the 243 patients in ICU with COVID-19 on Friday.
Over the weekend, 23 additional COVID-19 deaths were reported, bringing Alberta’s death toll from the disease to 2,645.
As of Monday, Alberta Health Services has 370 ICU beds, including 197 additional surge spaces, a 114 per cent increase over the baseline of 173.
“AHS has opened 38 additional ICU surge spaces in the past seven days,” spokesperson Kerry Williamson said.
Alberta has 312 patients in ICU, “the vast majority of whom are COVID positive,” Williamson said.
“This is the highest number of patients in ICU since the pandemic began.”
The number of patients in ICU has increased by 11 per cent in the past week.
ICU capacity for Alberta sits at 84 per cent. Without the added surge spaces, capacity would be 180 per cent, AHS said.
The Calgary zone is operating at 80 per cent of current capacity. The Edmonton zone is operating at 86 per cent capacity (including the added surge spaces).
Dr. Deena Hinshaw said Monday that out of the 265 Albertans with COVID-19 in ICU, 91.7 percent are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.
Fifty-eight intensive care physicians who represent a section of the Alberta Medical Association (AMA) sent a letter Monday, saying the province remains on the verge of a health system collapse.
The association says demand for intensive care nurses is so great, the number of patients assigned to each nurse has been increased, putting the level of care well below normal standards.
It comes one day after Alberta’s former chief medical officer of health co-wrote a letter pleading for the government to initiate a fire-break lockdown in an effort to slow the fourth wave.
The doctors from every corner of the province say it’s “not too late to change course” when it comes to slowing down the fourth wave — though the time to act is now.
They agreed with the data presented in last week’s news conference by the Alberta government, and the decision to implement further public health measures.
However, the ICU physicians hope the public health measures are here to stay until case numbers go down.
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