Everything you need to know about COVID-19 in Alberta on Thursday, Feb. 17

EDITOR'S NOTE:Daily case counts have never been perfect, but at this point in the Omicron-driven wave, they're a deeply flawed metric.Throughout the pandemic, the case counts have been based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing done by provincialbodies like Alberta Health Services, but those testing protocols have shifted to prioritize high-priority groups and people in higher risk settings, like health-care workers. So there are likely to be thousands of cases goinguntested, or tested but not reported, since there is no system for cataloguing at-home rapid antigen tests.

As a result, CBC News willde-emphasize case counts in our coverage, in favour of data and metrics that experts now say are more illuminating such as COVID-19 hospitalizations and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, which help us understand Omicron's impact on the health-care system andseverity of illness it causes, as well as thetesting positivity rate, which if it starts to level out and come down could indicate the wave has peaked.

Recent numbers:

• The province reported18more COVID deathson Feb. 17.A total of 3,822Albertans have died of the disease.
• 1,491people are in hospital with COVID(ninelessthan Wednesday's figure) and 116people are in ICU (five lessthan Wednesday's figure).
• In the past seven days, 58 per cent of ICU admissions were primarily for COVID, 28 per cent were considered COVID-contributingand14 per cent were admissions where a COVID infection was seen as incidental, according to AHS data.
• There were 813new cases of the diseaseonFeb. 16from 4,041 tests.
• The positivity rate for lab confirmed cases is23.29 per cent as of Feb16.
• Alberta has 16,551active cases of COVID-19.

The latest on restrictions:

• Stage 1 of Alberta's staged loosening of public health restrictions advanced another notch on Feb. 14:
  • As of Monday, there areno masking requirements for children and youth 12 years old and younger and no masking requirements for children and youth in schools for any age.
  • Stage 1 took effect Tuesday night at 11:59 p.m. and removed the restrictions exemption program, removed restrictions on food and beverage at entertainment venues, and removed capacity limits for all venues, except those that have a large capacity.
  • Stage 2 will take effect March1 at 12 a.m., and will remove indoor masking, remaining school requirements, youth screening for entertainment and sports, removal of capacity limits on all large venues and entertainment venues, limits on indoor and outdoor gatherings lifted and mandatory work from home lifted. This stage is contingent on hospitalizations trending downward.
  • Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says the province is working toward a third stage, which does not have a date, where people would no longer be required to isolate if they have COVID-19, and COVID operational and outbreak protocols will be lifted in continuing care facilities.
  • Health Minister JasonCopping said the stages are all conditions-based approach, based on hospitalization trends.
• Alberta isnow in a period of transition as it beginsto shift from a pandemic response to COVID-19 to an endemic one,Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, said Tuesday.
• Hinshaw pointed to ajoint statementissued by chief medical officers of health across Canada Monday outlining the need to make thetransition.
• "After nearly two years of requirements to modify the way we have lived, worked and socialized to help reduce transmission of the virus and protect each other, it's going to take time and effort to adjust away from mandates and towards personal risk assessments and actions," Hinshaw said.
• Calgary city council has voted on Feb. 15 to repeal the local mask bylaw whenever the Alberta government lifts its provincewide mask mandate.

Acute care outbreaks:

• As of Feb. 17,there are outbreaks at 30AHSand Covenant Health acute care facilities across the province.

School reopenings:

• Following the province's announcement, the Calgary Catholic School District saiditshealth measures in CCSD buildings will stay in place until further notice. CCSD will communicate any changes or updates to itsCOVID-19 policy directly with parents/guardians and staff.
• The University of Calgary announced on Jan. 14 that it isextending online classes until Feb. 19, with a return to in-person classes after Reading Week, beginning on Feb. 28.
• The University of Alberta is also delaying itsreturn to in-person activities until Feb.28.

Wastewater monitoring:

• Health Minister Jason Copping said on Feb. 15thatthe province reached its peak of Omicron cases weeks agobased on wastewater andPCRtesting data.
• Wastewater numbers inCalgary show a declining number of new COVID-19 infections. Data for Edmonton also shows a decline.The data from adashboard created by the University of Calgary Centrefor Informatics show the average amount of COVID-19 detected in wastewater has trended downwards since a peak on Jan. 11 in Calgary.
• As the Alberta government scales back on widespread PCR testing to focus on those in high-priority settings, the province is now relying on wastewater surveillance more than ever before to track the prevalence of COVID-19 in Alberta.
• The province's wastewater and the amount of infection in it has been monitored for two years by a group of 23 researchers in a joint project with the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta.
• The data isupdated publiclythree times perweek.
• Itdepicts the amount of SARS-CoV-2 RNA the virus that causes COVID-19 that's in the province's wastewater.
• The virus isshed in peoples'feces before symptoms arise, sovalues in the data associate strongest with cases occurring six days after thesamples arecollected.

Isolation times:

• As of Jan. 3, people with at least two doses of vaccine who test positive for COVID-19 need to isolate for only five days instead of 10.
  • If symptoms continue past five days, fully vaccinated people must continue to isolate untilfeeling better.
  • If they're symptom free after five days, they must wear a mask around others at all times when they're outside their home.
  • The change does not apply to people who aren't fully vaccinated, who must continue to isolate for10 days or until their symptoms end, whichever is longer.
  • Health Minister JasonCopping said the change followed evidence that suggests fully immunized people have shorter infectious periods.
  • This change also follows the approach taken by Ontario and some other provinces, as well as the latest guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control in the United States, Copping said.
  • Exceptions will be provided for workplaces where disruption of service for 24 hours or more would be harmful to the public, and where there is no other way to continue the service except by bringing workers back before their isolation period has ended, Copping said.
  • In these circumstances, additional public health measures will be required. For example, Copping said returning workers would not be allowed to remove their masks when in the same room as anyone else at any time.
• Hinshawannounced on Feb. 3 that the province will shorten the recommended quarantine period for unvaccinated, asymptomatic household contacts of confirmed cases. The quarantine will decreaseto 10 days from 14.

Vaccinations:

• According to Alberta Health, 75.4 per cent of the province's total population or 86.4per cent of those older than 12 have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
• Alberta issecond last of all provinces and territories in terms of the percentage of eligible people (ages five and up) who havereceived the COVID-19 vaccine,according to CBC's vaccine tracker.

Which regions are being hit hardest:

Here is thelatest detailed regional breakdownof active cases, as reported by the province on Feb. 15:

COVID in Alberta in charts and graphs:

Here are the latest Alberta COVID-19 stories: