Chief medical officer of health COVID-19 update – February 3, 2022

Check against delivery.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Due to a scheduling challenge, we unfortunately again do not have sign language interpreters available today. I’m sorry for the disruption this causes for deaf and hard-of-hearing Albertans.

As always, a summary of my update will be shared on my Twitter account later today, and the full transcript of my remarks will be posted to alberta.ca tomorrow morning.

Over the last 24 hours, we have identified 2,370 new cases of COVID-19 and completed 7,338 tests.

Our positivity rate for lab-confirmed cases is about 34%.

With respect to the more than 2,500 schools in the province, Alberta Education has confirmed, that as of February 2, 19 have shifted to temporary at-home learning to address operational challenges.

Of these schools, 4 have fewer than 40 students total.

Across the province, less than 1% of schools are currently operating online.

Looking to hospitalizations. There are currently 1,584 people total with COVID-19 in hospital, including 112 in the ICU.

Sadly, 15 new deaths were reported to Alberta Health over the last 24 hours.

My sympathies are with their loved ones and every Albertan who has lost someone they cared about, no matter the cause.

Today, I would like to provide an update that we are making to our quarantine recommendations.

Effective immediately, we are updating our recommendation for quarantine for asymptomatic, unvaccinated household close contacts of confirmed cases to align with other jurisdictions in Canada.

Starting today, we recommend that these individuals stay home for 10 days after exposure, instead of the current recommendation of 14 days.

This applies to all Albertans, including those in continuing care.

Reducing the length of time recommended for unvaccinated, asymptomatic household contacts of confirmed cases to 10 days from 14 days aligns with data showing the incubation period for Omicron is shorter than previous variants.

As new evidence emerges, we will continue to review the appropriateness of the duration of the recommended quarantine period.

Our data is indicating that we are likely beginning to turn a corner with this 5^th wave, while this is encouraging news, there are steps we need to continue to take to protect ourselves and each other.

In particular, vaccines remain critically important. The booster dose has been shown to strengthen protection against severe outcomes from Omicron, including hospitalization.

Getting fully immunized against COVID-19 doesn't just protect an individual - it also helps protect those around them. It helps us all by easing the strain on hospitals and our frontline healthcare workers.

I also know that due to widespread transmission, there are questions from Albertans about whether they need to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or get a third dose if they have previously been infected with the virus.

I believe the best way to combat hesitancy is with accurate information, and I would like to answer these questions.

There is evidence that recovery from COVID-19 with earlier strains provides some protection against future re-infection, but we don’t know how strong that protection is or how long it lasts.

The level of protection from infection-acquired immune responses will vary in each individual.

This level depends on how mild or severe their prior infection was, the time elapsed since they have recovered from infection, their age and whether they have a compromised immune system or other medical conditions.

The evidence is also clear that those who have previously been infected, and who also have received vaccine have a significantly stronger level of protection than recovery from infection alone.

Regardless of whether or not an Albertan has antibodies from a previous COVID-19 infection, getting fully vaccinated with all the doses we are eligible for is still the best way to make sure that we and those around us are protected against severe illness and outcomes, such as hospitalization due to COVID-19.

There are also questions about how long people should wait to get their vaccine after recovering from COVID-19.

There is no set waiting period in Alberta.

People who have recovered from COVID and have no contraindications to the vaccine can choose to receive it as soon as their isolation period is over.

This applies to first, second and third doses.

There are advantages and disadvantages of different timing options – receiving vaccine immediately or waiting a few weeks or months after recovery.

If you have questions about what time frame might be best for you, I encourage you to speak to a health-care provider, and you can also read the information on our website.

In closing today, I want to speak briefly about the concept of moving to an endemic approach to COVID.

My colleagues in other provinces which are farther ahead in the Omicron wave, and where hospitalizations are declining, have been speaking publicly about the fact that we need to plan and move towards a different way of managing COVID.

I agree with my colleagues that this is the direction we need to move when we see similar trends in our acute care system in Alberta.

This is a shift in thinking that can be challenging, given that we have needed to use extraordinary tools at our disposal over the past several years to protect our health system and our communities.

What I want to be clear about is what moving to an endemic means.

COVID will not go away.

There will continue to be impacts on our acute care systems, that will rise and fall with seasonality and new variants that may emerge. We cannot prevent all negative outcomes from COVID and we must be ready to respond to new information.

What has been important throughout the COVID response is seeking balance between the harms of COVID and the harms of the measures needed to prevent an overwhelming surge of severe outcomes.

I believe that after the Omicron wave has subsided the risk of our system becoming overwhelmed will be substantially reduced, and this will enable to shift our response.

This change will take time, and we need to continue monitoring severe impacts and any changes to the virus. But, we cannot continue to use restrictions in the long term once the risk of system overwhelm has passed.

Our acute care system is still under strain today. We need to continue to protect it, and by extension, all of us.

However, it is also true that in the future we will be able to remove restrictions and indeed we must continue to balance our response to minimize all harms across all areas.

The pandemic has never had one single right way to respond, but what is always true is that the actions that each of us take every day matter to our communities.

Thank you, and I’m happy to take questions.