1,566 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19 on Friday, 23 new coronavirus deaths

There were 1,566 Albertans with COVID-19 receiving care in hospital on Friday, with 127 of them in intensive care units.

That’s compared to 1,586 in hospital on Thursday, with 126 people in the province’s ICUs.

On Tuesday, Premier Jason Kenney announced his plan to relax COVID-19 measures. The restrictions exemption program was lifted at midnight on Wednesday while the mask mandate will be lifted on March 1 if hospitalizations continue to trend downward over the coming weeks.

During a COVID-19 update Thursday, Health Minister Jason Copping said Alberta’s ICU numbers are within normal capacity.

An additional 23 COVID-19 deaths were reported to the province over the past 24 hours. There have now been 3,718 Albertans who have died due to COVID-19.

0:53 COVID-19: Copping says Alberta’s restrictions exemption program was no longer effective

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• COVID-19: Copping says non-ICU hospitalizations in Alberta within normal capacity
• Answering your COVID-19 questions – Feb. 10, 2022
• COVID-19 restrictions ending for some provinces

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There were 24,154 active cases Friday as the province added an additional 1,400 lab-confirmed cases. The actual number of new, lab-confirmed cases is expected to be at least 10 times higher, however, as officials have said reduced PCR testing access has resulted in the province catching about one in 10 cases.

To date, 514,165 Albertans have been confirmed to have had COVID-19 while 486,270 of those people have recovered.

On Friday, the province announced 90 per cent of Albertans 12 years of age and over have now received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

To date, 86.3 per cent of the same age group has received a second dose.

More than 226,400 pediatric doses have been administered to kids between the ages of five and 11.

“Millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in Alberta safely and effectively,” chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said in a news release.

“Data from right here in our province shows that vaccines are helping to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the province and protect against severe outcomes.”

Hinshaw also urged all eligible Albertans to get their booster shot if they haven’t yet.

To date, 34.4 per cent of all Albertans have received a third dose.