There are 14,000 active cases of COVID-19 in Alberta, with another 10 deaths reported

Both numbers, which broke yesterday’s records, are considered key measures in the battle against the disease.

In the coming weeks, Alberta Health Services plans to launch more than 100,000 COVID-19 rapid test kits, which will be sent to targeted sites.

Over the past two months, AHS has evaluated the effectiveness of Abbott IDNow and PanBio COVID-19 test kits, the province said in a news release.

The rapid tests will be implemented in clinical pilot projects at an assessment center in Calgary and one in Edmonton, at assessment centers in Slave Lake and St. Paul, and at the Bonnyville hospital laboratory.

“The rapid tests are only valid for symptomatic people who have shown symptoms in the past seven days,” Health Minister Tyler Shandro said at a news conference Thursday. “So these tests are not for close contacts, nor are they for those who may have been exposed but are asymptomatic.”

The tests, he said, will be used on patients who are within the first seven days of symptoms appearing.

“This will allow us to quickly identify and notify positive cases within hours, reducing the need to transport patient samples to centralized public laboratories for processing.”

Dr Deena Hinshaw, the province’s chief health officer, updated on the pandemic at that same press conference.

During his update, Hinshaw praised the nearly 1.3 million Albertans who got the flu vaccination this year. That’s 228,000 more people than those who did it in the same period last year. So far, he said, the province hasn’t seen a single laboratory-confirmed case of seasonal flu.

“We know that influenza strikes at different times of the year depending on the season, so it’s not scientifically useful to compare the numbers until the end of the year,” he said. “But around this time last year, we already had 464 cases. This doesn’t mean that the flu is no longer a threat, but it reminds us that there is hope and that our actions can help protect each other from a wide range of diseases.

“Unfortunately, COVID-19 is more contagious than the flu and much more deadly for some people.”

A comparison of the statistics shows how much has changed in the past four weeks.

Since admission numbers are critical, let’s start with those.

• On October 28, 130 people were in hospital due to COVID-19, including 18 in intensive care beds.
• On Thursday, 383 people were in hospital due to COVID-19, including 84 in intensive care.

Next we can look at the case numbers.

• On October 28, the province reported 477 new cases and a total of 4,921 active cases.
• On Thursday, 1,077 new cases were identified and we had a total of 14,052 active cases.

A regional breakdown of active case numbers looked like this:

• October 28, Calgary area: 1,879 active cases.
• Thursday, Calgary area: 5,126 active cases.
• October 28, Edmonton area: 2,277 active cases.
• Thursday, 6,444 active cases.
• October 28, South Zone: 256 active cases.
• Thursday, South Zone: 664 active cases.
• October 28, northern area: 325 active cases.
• Thursday, Northern area: 789 active cases.
• October 28, central area: 162 active cases.
• Thursday, Central Zone: 947 active cases.
• October 28, unknown area, 22 active cases.
• Thursday, unknown area, 82 active cases

So we can go through the tests.

• On October 28, provincial laboratories completed 12,153 tests and the positivity rate was approximately 4%.
• On Thursday, the provincial labs completed 15,932 tests, and the positivity rate was 6.87%.

Eventually, it adds up to this sad total.

• On October 28, the provincial death toll was 323.
• By Thursday, the provincial death toll had reached 510.

Another 10 deaths were reported on Thursday:

• A 90-year-old woman linked to the Mayerthorpe Extendicare epidemic in the north.
• An 80-year-old woman linked to the Covenant Care Chateau Vitaline outbreak in the Edmonton area.
• An 80-year-old woman linked to the Mount Royal Revera outbreak in the Calgary area.
• A man in his 90s linked to the outbreak of the Laurel Heights Retirement Residence in the Edmonton area.
• An 80-year-old man linked to the Luxstone Manor outbreak in the Calgary area.
• A woman in her 90s linked to the outbreak at the Edmonton Chinatown Care Center.
• An 80-year-old man linked to the Capital Care Strathcona outbreak.
• A man in his seventies from the Edmonton area.
• A man in his nineties linked to the South Country Village outbreak in the south.
• An 80-year-old man linked to the Covenant Care Chateau Vitaline outbreak in the Edmonton area.