Everything you need to know about COVID-19 in Alberta on Tuesday, Aug. 31

The latest on vaccines:

• Alberta Health Services announced Tuesday it would require all employees and contracted health-care providers including physicians to be fully vaccinated.
• The policy applies to AHS, Alberta Precision Labs, Carewest, CapitalCare and Covenant Health workers, members of medical and midwifery staffs, students, volunteers and anyone acting on their behalf. The latest an individual must receive their second dose is Oct. 16.
• The Alberta government is making a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine available for immunocompromised Albertans and for all seniors living in congregate care facilities.
• The shots will be available starting Wednesday. A news release from the province says receiving a third dose will boost immunity levels for these people.
• In addition, mRNA doses that's Pfizer or Moderna will be made available to Albertans travelling to a jurisdiction that does not accept visitors vaccinated with AstraZeneca, Covishield, or mixed doses.
• Alberta feed stores are receiving a deluge of callers asking to buy ivermectin because of misinformation that suggests the livestock dewormer can be used to treat COVID-19 in humans.
  • Different forms of ivermectin are used to treat parasites, such as intestinal worms or lice, in both animals and humans. But the livestock form of the drug should never be used on humans, and parasites are not the same as viruses. COVID-19 is caused by a virus.
  • The largest study in favour of ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment was retracted after concerns about data fabrication, plagiarism and ethical breaches. No clinical studies have proven whether ivermectin can slow or stop the novel coronavirus from growing in human cells.

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Epidemiologist Dr. Christopher Labos says getting vaccinated is a safer and better way to protect against the coronavirus.(Benoit Tessier/Reuters)

• The province says 66.3per cent of allAlbertans have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 59.4per cent have had two doses. Of eligible Albertans (those ages 12 and up), about 69.8per cent have had both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
• That's considerablylower than the national average.Canada-wide, 66.7per cent of the total population and 76.3per cent of those ages 12 and older have been fully vaccinated. About 73.2per cent of the total population, or 83.8per cent of those ages 12 and older, have received at least one dose as ofAug. 31, according to the CBC'svaccinetracker.

The latest COVID-19 numbers:

• Alberta reported 920 new casesof COVID-19 on Tuesday, out of 7,487 tests.
• The positivity rate was 12.42per cent, close to the highest it's been during the entire pandemic.
• The province is leading the country in daily new COVID cases and active cases.
• There were 11,660active casesacross Albertaan increaseof 234 from theprevious data update. Ontario, a province with about three times more people than Alberta, has5,868cases.

• There were 431people being treated in hospital, 106of whom were in intensive care beds.
• 94.2 per cent ofthosein ICU beds for COVIDwereunvaccinated or partially vaccinated, and 79.6per cent ofnon-ICU patients wereunvaccinated or partially vaccinated, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health,saidMonday on Twitter.
• Four more deaths were reported, bringing Alberta's total to2,375deaths.
• The R-value, which represents the number of people infected by each infected person, was 1.19(with a confidence interval of 1.16-1.23) forAug. 16-22.
• 238,895 Albertansare considered to have recovered from COVID-19.
• Alberta has now identified one case ofK417N, known as the delta plus variant.

See which regions are being hit hardest:

Here is thedetailed regional breakdownof active cases as reported by the province on Tuesday.

• Calgary zone: 3,176.
• Edmonton zone: 3,660.
• South zone: 1,214.
• North zone: 2,191.
• Central zone: 1,385.
• Unknown: 34.

The latest on hospital outbreaks:

The province says that as of Aug. 31there are COVID-19 outbreaks at nineAHS and Covenant Health acute care facilities:

• North Zone
  • Redwater Health Centre.
• Edmonton Zone:
  • Grey Nuns Community Hospital.
• South Zone:
  • Medicine Hat Regional Hospital.
  • Chinook Regional Hospital.
  • Cardston Health Centre.
  • Crowsnest Pass Health Centre.
• Calgary Zone:
  • Peter Lougheed Centre.
  • Foothills Medical Centre.
  • Rockyview General Hospital.

The latest on restrictions and reopenings:

• TheAlberta government said Aug. 13 that due to surging COVID-19 cases and higher non-ICU hospitalizations than expected it would hold off on its controversial move to lift morepublic health measuresonAug. 16and would keep them in place six more weeks until Sept. 27, after controversially announcing in late July that quarantinefor close contacts was no longer mandatorybut recommended, contact tracers would no longer notify close contacts in most cases and asymptomatic testing was no longer recommended.
• Hockey Calgary is implementing a mask requirement for all athletes, coaches, officials and volunteers, effective Aug. 27, until at least Sept. 27.
• The YMCA says effective Sept. 1 masks will once again be mandatory at all of its Calgary facilities. Digital health screening will also bereintroduced.

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• The Cityof Calgary is postponing mandatory return to work for city employees untilOct. 20.
• The Calgary Catholic School District says even though Alberta Health Services has ceased notifying schools when there is a positive case in their building and doing contact tracing, the board will continue to notify families of positive cases when they're aware of them.
• Families withkids enrolled at schools run by the Calgary Board of Education, on the other hand, will not getthe same kind of notifications.
• The Calgary Board of Education announced Thursday it was reopening registration for its online learning option because of the continued uncertainty over theCOVID-19 pandemic.The school board originally closed registration for CBe-learn on April 23and didn't plan to allow furtherregistrations.
• The Calgary Board of Educationand theCalgary Catholic School Districtannounced earlier in Augustthatmasks would need to be worn by K-12 students and staff at the beginning of the school year.
• Edmonton Public Schools requires all staff and students to wear masks while indoors. At Edmonton Catholic Schools, masks are required at all times for all students and staff, including during classes, the division announced Monday.
• Both Edmonton school districts intend to work with Alberta Health Services to offer pop-up vaccination clinics for older students.
• As of Aug. 30, students and staff at Calgary's Mount Royal University will be required to wear masksin all indoor spaces on campus, includingclassrooms, labs, hallways and meeting/study rooms.
• MRUis working outdetails for afrequent rapid testing program for students who have not declared they are fully vaccinated.
• At the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary and the University of Lethbridge, anyone not fully vaccinated will have to undergo regular rapid testing as of Sept.1.Edmonton's MacEwan University is also planning to implement rapid testing for students who are not vaccinated.
• The fourschools are also requiring mask-wearing in public indoor areas where physical distancing is not possible.
• At Calgary's SAITcampus,and Edmonton's NAIT campus, as well as at Concordia University of Edmonton, masks are required for all indoor spaceseffective Aug. 23. Bow Valley College will require masks indoors as of Aug. 19.

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