The province recorded another 1,660 new COVID-19 cases in a 24-hour period with a positivity rate of 9.4 per cent.
There are currently 1,058 people in hospital with COVID and 226 of those are in ICU.
Dr. Yiu reported that “Over the past five days, the average number of COVID ICU admissions have been more than 23 per day. It is tragic that we are only able to keep pace with these sorts of numbers because in part some of our ICU patients have passed away and this reality has a deep and lasting impact on our ICU teams.”
Sadly, another 17 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours. That means that 2,611 Albertans have now died from COVID-19.
However, Dr. Yiu was able to relay, “I should also note that in the past two days, our teams have managed to move 18 patients out of ICU which means that these patients no longer need that critical level of care.” Yiu once again thanked healthcare workers for their hard work through the exhausting pandemic.
Dr. Hinshaw continued to attempt to provide firm data and dispel false rumours saying, “Albertans who have not been fully vaccinated are about 15 times more likely than those with vaccine protection to end up in the hospital from COVID-19. They are about 40 times more likely to be admitted to the ICU. About 77% of Albertans in hospital with COVID are not fully vaccinated, and 92% of those in the ICU right now have not had both shots. We have heard persistent questions and rumours on social media that vaccines are not working against the Delta variant, but this is categorically untrue. In Alberta, COVID-19 vaccines have proven to be 85% effective against infection with the Delta variant after two doses. COVID-19 vaccines are even more highly effective at preventing severe disease and death, including against the highly contagious Delta variant. The bottom line is that two doses of vaccine will protect most people from getting sick, having to go to the hospital, or dying if they catch the virus.”
The vaccination rates are rising as 82 per cent of Albertans have now received one dose of COVID vaccine while 73.2 per cent of the province are now fully immunized.
There are now 21,180 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. Grande Prairie is accounting for 465 of those cases while County of GP is adding 238 to the total.