“Many locations across the county, including Edmonton and Calgary, are initially showing signs of rising trends,” Copping said in the county weekly update. “However, as we know, wastewater data can be extremely volatile, so we will continue to monitor these levels and other top indicators in the coming days and weeks.” Alberta’s positivity rate is slightly higher than last week. Last week, the daily positive rate of PCR tests ranged from 21.7 percent to 27.1 percent, averaging 24.5 percent – a slight increase from an average of 22 percent over the past seven days, he said. Copping. “Given that we have lifted the vast majority of public health measures in the last seven weeks, it is not surprising that we are seeing a slight increase in COVID transmission across the province,” he said. “There are just more opportunities for the virus to spread as more and more people work from the office, return to travel, socialize in different environments and continue their normal habits.”
Is a sixth wave coming?
Laboratory tests have found that about 70 percent of positive cases in Alberta are subtypes of Omicron BA.2, making it the predominant coronavirus strain in the province. “Fortunately, the data available so far do not show that he is causing a more serious illness than the previous Omicron strain,” Copping said. He hesitated to say whether the province was considering a sixth wave of COVID-19. “We have to wait and see,” he said. “If we look at other jurisdictions around the world and across the country, we have seen an increase in BA.2, an increase in cases. “What remains to be seen is how big this wave will be and then what the impact will be on our health system.” As of Wednesday, there are 964 people in the hospital with COVID-19, slightly higher than 956 last week, with 47 of those ICU patients down from 56. Copping said another 30 people with COVID-19 have died since last Wednesday, bringing the death toll in Alberta since the pandemic began to 4,074. And while the county prepares for a surge in transmission, Alberta remains relatively unrestricted. Almost all public health measures for the pandemic have been lifted in the province since March 1, as the Alberta government launched Step 2 of its reopening plan. No date has been set for Step 3 – when the COVID-19 cases will no longer need to be isolated and the rest of the ongoing care measures will be removed. Copping said it would depend on treatment trends. Dr Deana Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer, is on a break this week but will return to the podium next Wednesday, Copping said.
