Everything you need to know about COVID-19 in Alberta on Thursday, Feb. 3

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.

The latest:

• Alberta will announce a plan early next week tostart liftingmost, if not all, publichealth restrictions, said Premier Jason Kenneyduring a Facebook Live on Thursday.
• Alberta must prepare to adopt anendemicapproach to managingCOVID-19, Dr.Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, said Thursday.
• Hospitalizations are starting to level off, but 15more COVID-19 deaths were reported Thursday.
• Hinshawalsoannounced 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.
• Hinshaw announced the province has received 3.1 million rapid tests.They are being shipped to pharmacies in Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer, along with First Nations communities and Alberta Health Services locations, Hinshaw said.
• Shipments of Pfizer's at-home COVID treatment, Paxlovid,are available to some Albertansas of Jan. 31. The treatment will be available to specific groups of people who have tested positive on a lab-based COVID-19 test.
• Paxlovidis intended for those who are older than 65, are unvaccinatedand have immunosuppressive conditions;or people older than 18 whoare unvaccinated with pre-existing medical conditions that put them at higher risk of severe illness or death, if they were to contract COVID-19.
• More Pfizer vaccine doses are now available in Alberta for those who have been waiting for themfor first, second or third shots, Health Minister Jason Copping says.

Recent numbers:

• There were 1,584people with COVID in Alberta hospitalsas reported on Feb. 3, down from1,598 the day before.
• There are 112people with COVIDin intensive care as reported on Feb. 3, an increaseof sixfrom Feb. 2.
• Of people admitted to hospital in the past week,57 per cent of new non-ICUadmissions and 70.2 per cent of new ICUadmissions were directly related to COVID. The remainder of admissions were not related to the virus, or it was unclear.
• As of Jan. 29, provincial ICU capacity (including additional surge beds) was at 75.1 per cent. Without the additional surge spaces, provincial ICU capacity would be at 105per cent.
• On Jan. 20, Hinshaw said thatabout four per cent of people in hospital with COVID are under the age of 18. She said she hasn't seen any children who have had at least one dose of vaccine in hospital for COVID.
• The province announced Jan. 20 it is expanding bed capacity for Omicron patients. Existing beds are being allocated for COVID-19 care, and additional beds are being opened in some locations as needed.
• Alberta'spositivity rate reported onFeb. 3was around34per cent.
• The province reported15more COVID deathson Feb. 3. A total of 3,608Albertans have died of COVID-19.
• Case counts:
  • 2,370newcases were reported to Alberta Health out of 7,338tests.
  • Hinshaw said the true figure is likely 10 times that numbergiven that high caseloads have overwhelmed the ability of the system to test outside high-priority groups.
  • Alberta has33,879active cases of COVID-19.

Acute care outbreaks:

• As of Feb. 3,there are outbreaks at 31AHSand Covenant Health acute care facilities across the province.
• There are sevenhospitals in the North zone, eight hospitals in the Edmonton zone, seven hospitals in the Central zone, six in the Calgary zoneandthreein the South zone affected.

School reopenings:

• Hinshaw said that as of Feb. 2,19schools in Alberta have needed to shift to online learning to address operational challenges due to COVID-19.
• 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.
• Students in Albertaheaded back to class on Jan. 10. Education Minister Adriana LaGrange has promised thousands of test kits and medical-grade maskswill be delivered to students and parents over the next few days.
• The Calgary Board of Education says it expects staffing shortages to persist as the fifth wave continues. On Jan. 18, more than 1,200 staff were absent, the board said.The number of absences is a 50 per cent increase over the previous three-year average for this point in time, the board said.Edmonton Public Schools reported more than 900 absences on Jan. 18. The board has hired an additional 29 temporary contract teachers to help cover off absences.

Wastewater monitoring:

• Wastewater numbers inCalgary show a declining number of new COVID-19 infections. Data in Edmonton is less clearly in decline but still lower than its peak at the beginning of January. 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.

Health restrictions:

• New public health restrictionsin Albertatookeffect on Dec. 24. They include:
  • Venues in the Restrictions Exemption Programthat seatmore than 1,000 people are to be at 50 per cent capacity.For venues with capacity of 500 to 1,000 occupants, 500 people is the limit. No food or drink can be consumed in these venues.
  • Restaurants, pubs and bars areto have a maximum table capacity of 10 people. Mingling between tables andinteractive activities like dancing or billiardsare not permitted.
• The tightened restrictions came after Kenneyloosenedprivatesocial gathering restrictions on Dec. 15,scrapping the rule that only people fromtwo households can get together indoors. He said social gatherings couldconsist of people from any household, but shouldn't exceed10 people (not counting those under age 18).He also dropped therequirement that everyoneat indoor social gatherings be fully vaccinated.
• Alberta has had arestrictions exemption program,a voluntary vaccine passport system, in place as ofSept. 20 after suffering through adisastrous fourth wave of COVID-19.A full list of restrictions and exemptions is available on the government's website.

Vaccinations:

• As of Jan. 28, Alberta placed second last of all provinces and territories in terms of the percentage of eligible people (ages five and up) who had received the COVID-19 vaccine,according to CBC's vaccine tracker.
• According to Alberta Health, 74.6 per cent of the province's total population or 79.4 per cent of eligible Albertans(ages five years and older) have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
• 35.6per cent of Albertansages 5 and up have received a third, or booster, dose.Anyone 18 and older who received their second COVID-19 vaccine at least five months agois urged tobook a booster dose.
• As of Jan. 20, some immunocompromised people have access to a fourth dose of the vaccine, including transplant recipients and those receiving chemotherapy.

Which regions are being hit hardest:

Here is thelatest detailed regional breakdownof active cases, as reported by the province on Feb. 2:

COVID in Alberta in charts and graphs:

Here are the latest Alberta COVID-19 stories: