Everything you need to know about COVID-19 in Alberta on Wednesday, Jan. 19

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 latestnumbers:

• The following numbers were releasedJan. 19:
• Hospitalizations:
  • There were 1,101people with COVID in Alberta hospitalson Jan. 19. A week earlier, on Jan. 12,there were 863infectedpatients in hospital.
  • There were 108people with COVIDin intensive care on Jan. 19, compared with 80on Jan. 12.
  • As of Jan. 19, provincial ICU capacity (including additional surge beds) was at 86 per cent. Without the additional surge spaces, provincial ICU capacity would be at 120per cent.
  • According to Alberta Health, 43 of the 1,007 COVIDpatients in hospitalas of Jan 17 wereunder the age of 18. That includedeight who werein intensive care. Those figures are up from last Friday, when 30 youngsters were hospitalized and four were in the ICU.
  • On Jan. 17, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. DeenaHinshaw said AHS will beginreporting the proportion of people admitted to hospitals because ofCOVID-19as compared to those who are admitted because of other causesbut still have the disease, Hinshaw said.
  • She said about 51 per centof new non-ICU hospital admissions since last week are due to COVID. The other 49 per cent were cases where COVID was not a factor or where cause of admission could not be determined.
  • Of ICUadmissions,74 per centare due to COVID and26 per centare incidental infections or unclear.
• Positivity rates:
  • Alberta'spositivity rate on Jan. 19was around38per cent.
  • The province reportedsixmore COVID deathson Jan. 19.Following a review of previously reported COVID deaths, five deaths have been reclassified as non-COVID related, which is why the provincial total increased by onlyone.A total of 3,413 Albertans have died of COVID-19.
  • Case counts:
    • 3,837 newcases were reported to Alberta Health out of10,005 tests.
    • Alberta has67,534active cases of COVID-19.
    • 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.

Acute care outbreaks:

• As of Jan. 19,there are outbreaks at 24 AHSand Covenant Health acute care facilities across the province.
• There are four hospitals in the North zone, eighthospitals in the Edmonton zone, fourhospitals in the Central zone, sixin the Calgary zoneand two in the Soutth zone affected.
• Drumheller Health Centre, one of the hospitals affected, hastemporarily postponed inpatient surgical procedures due to the outbreak at the centre, AHSsaid Jan. 11. Day surgeries will continue as scheduled.

School reopenings:

• 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 winter break for K-Grade 12 students wasextendedto Jan. 10 as COVID-19 case numbers surged.
• Because of the disruption to learning, January diploma exams havebeen cancelled.
• Students in grades 4 to 9 will be able to access free, prerecorded, online tutoring resources starting this week to help them catch up on skills and learning they may have missed.
• Later this year, that tutoring will be expanded to more subjects and will include live tutoring.
• School authorities will continue to be able to shift classes or grades to at-home learning for short periods of time to address outbreaks.
• 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.

Testing:

• Copping said Wednesday only 500,000 of the 16 million rapid antigen testspromised by Ottawahave arrived and that the balance of the 10 million from private suppliers is also tied up in delays and global supply chain bottlenecks.
• Many Albertans have been struggling in the past two weeks to get their hands on rapidtests. The tests were first available on a widespread basis before the holidaysand Albertanscan access them forfree on a first-come, first-serve basis through participating pharmacies and AHS locations.
• Effective Jan. 10,PCR tests are available onlyfor select groups, which includes health-care workers, correctional facility staff and returning international travellers in order to screen for new variants. Previously, lab-based PCR tests were also available to those who did not have access to rapid tests.
• Hinshaw says with the positivity rate near 40 per cent, transmission is higher than it's ever been before and the provincelikely has 10 times or more COVID-19 cases than are being diagnosed through PCR tests.

Wastewater monitoring:

• 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.
• Dr. Michael Parkins, one of the research leads, said on Jan. 7 that it'simportant not to overinterpret individual data points, such as apparent drops in infection, but rather understand trends over time.
• "Our data trends up, up, up.... I don't think we've seen the peak yet," he said.

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.

Health restrictions:

• Premier Jason Kenney says Alberta will not be following Quebec's plan to impose a financial penalty on those who refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Hesays data shows the unvaccinated are proving to be a vastly greater burden on the hospital system than the vaccinated, but making them pay extra would not be fair.
• The leaders of Alberta's largest public and private sector unions called in an open letter on Jan. 11 for drastic lockdown measures immediately to fight the spiralling COVID-19 Omicron variant. Buta spokesperson Kenney says the United Conservative government is following and acting on the scientific dataand that such restrictions arenot being considered.
• 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. 19, Alberta placed 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.
  • 73per cent of the province's total population or 76.8per cent of eligible Albertans(ages five years and older) have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to CBC's vaccine tracker.
  • 79.7per centof the province's total population, and 83.5per cent of those ages five and older, have received at least one dose.
• As of Jan. 20, some immunocompromised people will have access to a fourth dose of the vaccine, including transplant recipients and those receiving chemotherapy.
• The province said as of Jan. 3, more than onemillion people have had a booster shot. Butan additional two million Albertans have received their first two doses and are eligible for a booster.Anyone aged 18 and older who received their second COVID-19 vaccine at least five months agois being urged tobook a booster dose.

Which regions are being hit hardest:

Here is thelatest detailed regional breakdownof active cases, as reported by the province on Jan. 19:

• Calgary zone: 32,795.
• Edmonton zone:24,000.
• Central zone:4,121.
• North zone:2,965.
• South zone:3,028.
• Unknown:625.

COVID in Alberta in charts and graphs:

Here are the latest Alberta COVID-19 stories: