Chief medical officer of health COVID-19 update – December 7, 2021

Check against delivery.

Thank you Chris and good afternoon everyone.

Over the last 24 hours, we have identified 240 new cases of COVID-19, and completed about 5,500 tests. Our positivity rate is 4.3%.

There are currently active alerts or outbreaks in 129 schools.

Eight of these schools have had 10 or more cases infectious in the school in the last 14 days.

There are currently 373 people being treated for COVID-19 in hospital, including 76 in the ICU.

Sadly, 5 new deaths have been reported to Alberta Health over the last 24 hours.

I extend my condolences to those who are grieving the loss of these Albertans and any others.

Each death continues to be a sad reminder of the kind of impact this virus can have and why our collective efforts against it matter so much.

The total Omicron case count for Alberta remains at 11.

Given our current aggressive testing program, it is likely we will continue to detect more cases and respond to them as we have to date.

I would also like to speak to some information I shared on social media on Monday, where some household members of these cases have tested positive for COVID, but have not yet been confirmed as Omicron.

I would like to confirm that both schools where there was a potential exposure have notified any possibly exposed groups. Anyone who has received a notification letter is asked to go for testing and monitor for symptoms.

Alberta Health is also providing rapid tests to these schools. The schools will help distribute these to help parents and guardians monitor at home.

I would like to remind families of school-aged children that there continue to be mitigation strategies in place in schools that are effective to help continue to prevent spread.

This includes mandatory masking for students in Grades 4 to 12, and staff in all schools and child care facilities, and recommended masking for Kindergarten to Grade 3.

Cohorting and daily screening are also used. And as always, anyone with COVID-19 symptoms must isolate and should be tested through AHS.

I know that some Albertans have asked why close contacts are not being legally required to quarantine at this time.

Close contacts of suspected or confirmed Omicron cases who are not fully immunized are strongly recommended to quarantine at home for 14 days after their last exposure.

All close contacts, whether or not they are fully immunized should also monitor for symptoms, and if they become symptomatic, they must stay home and arrange for testing.

From what we have seen from Albertans over the past 21 months, we know the vast majority will work with us to minimize spread in this way.

This close contact management approach is more cautious than the approach we have been taking for the past several months. This is in order to minimize transmission risks while we learn more about the Omicron variant.

However, due to the rate of vaccination in Alberta and the effectiveness of vaccines of preventing infection, lowering the risk of exposure from a close contact and reducing general community transmission, we are not looking to re-instate legally mandated quarantine at this time.

I would like to remind Albertans, that the Omicron variant, is a variant of COVID-19. It is not a new disease.

While we are still learning about the Omicron variant’s transmissibility and severity, this is not the first time a variant of concern has emerged in Alberta and it will not be the last.

We will not stop transmission – our goal is to slow initial spread to give us more time to learn about the variant.

We already have many tools at our disposal to limit the spread of COVID-19 and its variants, and protect ourselves from becoming severely ill.

That’s why it’s important to continue following the current public health measures in place, such as physical distancing, wearing a mask, proper hand hygiene, and staying home and getting tested if feeling sick.

These measures have proven to be effective in helping to reduce the spread.

It’s also important for those who have not done so yet, to be fully vaccinated. First and second doses continue to be available across the province.

We are seeing a number of parents and guardians making the decision to get their young children immunized against COVID-19, and more than 60,000 children ages 5 to 11 have received their first dose of vaccine.

If you are considering vaccine for your child, I encourage you to seek out reliable, accurate sources of information or speak directly with a medical professional who can answer your questions.

I would also like to remind Albertans that a number of individuals are now eligible for boosters shots, and I encourage anyone who is eligible to get their third dose.

As of Monday, all those aged 60 or older are able to get a third dose, if it has been six months or more since their second dose.

For more information on eligibility or to book appointments, please visit alberta.ca/vaccine.

I know that after nearly two years of this pandemic, a new variant is not welcome news.

But I would like Albertans to keep in mind, that based on all our previous experiences and the early information about this variant, I am confident that vaccines and our tried and true routines will continue to help us protect one another against COVID-19.

Over the course of the past 21 months, our understanding of COVID-19 has grown significantly.

We continue to learn about the virus from other jurisdictions, and from what we see here at home.

Every day, we closely monitor the spread of COVID-19 using a number of methods. And today, I’d like to speak a little bit about how wastewater surveillance is being integrated into that work.

Wastewater surveillance involves taking samples from treatment plants, and then running lab tests to look for evidence of the virus.

This approach allows us to monitor the prevalence of COVID-19 in a given area – functioning like an early warning system.

It does not rely on individuals’ decisions to get tested, so it complements our testing data.

We have been working collaboratively for many months with the University of Calgary on a provincewide wastewater testing regime.

Building off work also done by the University of Alberta, EPCOR and Alberta Precision Labs, the University of Calgary is coordinating the collection and reporting of COVID wastewater testing in our province. This is happening in major centres as well as in a number of smaller communities.

There are currently 15 sites across the province including Edmonton, Calgary, Cold Lake and Medicine Hat, and they are working to bring more sites online in the coming weeks.

In general, the amount of virus detected in wastewater has been low and stable across the province since November.

There has been an occasional spike in some communities, but the level of virus detected has always returned to baseline quite quickly, typically within two to three days.

The University of Calgary will be launching a website later this week so Albertans can see these regular data updates for themselves.

As always, we will continue to monitor the evidence and emerging information from this and other research to share any important findings with Albertans.

Thank you and I’m happy to take questions.