Chief medical officer of health COVID-19 update – January 25, 2021

Check against delivery.

Thank you, Minister and good afternoon everyone.

As the Minister has outlined, the emergence of more infectious variants of concern is an issue that requires close attention.

Unfortunately, over the weekend, as you heard, we identified our first case of the B.1.1.7 variant that has no currently known link to travel. This was the only non-travel variant case identified in the over 1,000 samples screened last week by the lab.

While we continue to investigate this case to see if we can identify any contacts who may have had a travel exposure, this is a potentially concerning development.

It underlines the importance of the work that our lab has been doing to expand their capacity to screen positive cases for genetic mutations of concern.

They are rapidly expanding this capacity so that we can ensure that we will detect variants of concern if they are spreading in the province.

Turning to today’s update, over the last 24 hours we have identified 362 new cases of COVID-19 in the province and completed about 7,200 tests.

That puts our current positivity rate at about 5%.

In addition to these cases from the last 24 hours, I want to advise you of some historical cases that will be added to our website today, due to a technical issue in our case reporting, they are being added later than usual.

As you know, Alberta started utilizing point-of-care, or rapid, COVID-19 tests last month. These are being used in targeted settings where they can help people who have symptoms get tested very quickly.

Due an internal technical issue with reporting of these rapid test results, between December 7 and January 13, some of the results of these tests were not included in the numbers that we report online.

This was an unfortunate error, and we have put processes in place to make sure it does not happen again.

We have also added these cases to our online dashboard today. This means that 409 cases have now been added to various days over that five-week period.

It’s important to note that this issue impacted our online reporting only. Each of these patients still received their results and isolated during this time, so this did not impact the spread in our province.

Also, the change in cases was spread over a long time period so it would not have impacted any policy decisions.

I am mentioning it today because it is important to me that we are fully transparent about the case data that we report.

Turning to schools, there are currently 259 schools on active alerts and nine on outbreak. This represents about 11% of the schools in the province.

These schools have a combined total of 500 cases. So far, in-school transmission has been reported to 51 schools with 39 having only 1 new case as a result.

Overall in the province, here are now 637 people in hospital, including 113 who have been admitted to the ICU.

Sadly, 25 new deaths have been reported to us in the last 24 hours. These Albertans were between the ages of 41 and 100.

My deepest sympathies go to the family, friends and communities mourning the deaths of these individuals. They loved and were loved, and will be missed. 

As we work to advise on the best path forward to prevent hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19, as I mentioned earlier, we are closely monitoring for the UK and South African variants here in the province and are watching spread that is happening in other jurisdictions.

My team and I are also keeping up with the latest research and developments from across the country and around the world. If additional steps are required to prevent the spread of variants in Alberta, we will take action to do so.

Finally, I want to thank the many, many Albertans who continue to follow the public health orders in place.

You are the majority, and you are the reason we continue to see promising progress in our daily case numbers, positivity rate and r-value. Your sacrifices and selfless efforts are making a difference.

Through these efforts, our hospitalizations have also declined, but unfortunately they remain very high.

This is because hospitalization rates are a lagging indicator and on average, patients admitted due to COVID-19 have an average stay of 12 days.

This can be even longer for the sickest patients who need ICU care. 

Until our hospitalization rates come down like our other numbers, we need to continue with the measures in place.

I know this isn’t easy – especially for those whose businesses and work have been impacted – but it’s necessary given the continued strain on our health care system.

That strain has also come with its own hardship and consequences for the many Albertans waiting for scheduled procedures and surgeries.

As soon as it’s safe to recommend the easing of any restrictions, we will do so. Until then, we need to continue to follow all the measures in place. 

Thank you and we are happy to take questions.