while alberta’s vaccine rollout continues, it has not been fast enough to quell the third wave of infections the province is experiencing.
with another 1,437 cases of covid-19 reported sunday, alberta surpassed 20,000 active cases for the first time in months. there are now 20,136 active cases provincewide, just several hundred cases short of alberta’s peak during the second wave of 20,972 active cases on dec. 13.
the new cases reported sunday include 932 cases of the variants of concern, representing 61.1 per cent of the province’s active cases. the 1,437 cases came from 17,025 completed tests for a test positivity rate of 8.4 per cent.
“if this is a race between the variant and the vaccine, the variant is winning. and every time it wins, you get more cases and more people sick, and more stress on the hospital system,” said dr. james talbot, co-chairman of the strategic covid-19 committee for the edmonton zone medical staff association.“it takes time for these preventative measures to work.”
there are a total 12,299 active variant cases in alberta.
there are 594 people in hospital due to the novel coronavirus, including 140 patients in intensive-care units. this was an increase from the 584 in hospital on saturday, including 129 in icus.