Alberta surpasses 4,000 COVID deaths on pandemic anniversary
CBC
Alberta reported 11 new COVID-19-related deaths on Friday, surpassing the 4,000 total death mark on the two-year anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring COVID-19 a pandemic.
The 11 deaths bring the province's total to 4,003.
The number of people in hospital with COVID decreased by 22. There are now 1,045 people in hospital with COVID-19, including 74 in ICU. Week-over-week, the number of people in hospital decreased by 139.
Alberta labs completed 2,519 PCR tests Thursday and found 473 new cases of COVID-19. The positivity rate was around 18.86 per cent, while the seven-day average for positivity rate is about 19 per cent.
There are now 6,545 known active cases of COVID, a decline of 144 from Thursday's update, though that number only includes those who test positive on a PCR test, which most Albertans can't access.
The province said about 80.9 per cent of Albertans had received at least their first dose of a COVID vaccine, and 76.1 per cent had received their second dose, as of Friday's update. About 35.7 per cent of Albertans have had a third dose of vaccine.
On the day the WHO declared the pandemic two years ago, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, stated that "COVID-19 is not like other threats we have seen in the past decades."
Two years ago, Alberta was advising travellers who returned from Italy to isolate for 14 days and any person who left the country to consider limiting attendance at large gatherings.
Today, Alberta is in Step 2 of its plan to lift restrictions, removing most public health measures present over the course of the pandemic. The government is opting to move forward on a plan to live with the virus.
On March 11, 2020, the province reported five new cases bringing the province's total to 19. Today about 530,761 cases of COVID have been recorded in the province.
Over the course of the pandemic, more than 21,000 people have been hospitalized with COVID, about 3,600 in intensive care.
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