Next week, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Chief Medical Officer of Health will be giving an overall update on the Omicron variant and general numbers for cases and the tests that are completed on December 28 and December 30.
On December 29 there will be a breakdown of case numbers from December 24th to December 28.
Then on January 4, there will be a detailed breakdown of cases.
Over the last 24 hours, there have been 1, 625 new cases of COVID-19 in the province.
The positivity rate is 13.6 per cent and there were no deaths reported in the last 24 hours.
In the Town of Strathmore, there are currently 31 active cases of COVID-19.
Hinshaw said there has been a significant uptake of people getting third doses.
About 196,391 booster doses have been booked since they expanded to people aged 18 and older who received their second dose at least five months ago.
There are 318 people in the hospital with COVID-19 and 64 people in the ICU.
“While these numbers have dropped in the recent week, it is important to remember these are still very high baselines and that it is too soon to know what the severity impact from our omicron cases will be,” said Hinshaw.
She noted that with the Omicron variant there are doubling times of just two to three days, which is much faster than the Delta variant.
She said the province will reserve PCR testing for higher-risk groups. Rapid tests should be preferentially used for people with symptoms.
There will also be new rules for staff at long-term care, hospice, and designated supportive living facilities.
Long-term care, hospice, and designated supportive living staff are required to take a daily rapid test for 10 days if they have been exposed to a positive COVID-19 case. If they test positive on a rapid test, they will not be able to work.
“We are taking these precautions given how fast omicron is spreading,” said Hinshaw.
She asked people to cut in-person gatherings by half over the holidays. She said people can gather in groups of up to 10 people, but people should stay home if they feel unwell, and cancel gatherings if you are the host and feel unwell.
For a full list of changes to regulations at long-term care, hospice, or supportive living facilities can be found on alberta.ca.