New restrictions will work: Hinshaw New restrictions will work: Hinshaw
Alberta's top doctor says she is confident the province's COVID-19 cases will come down as a result of the new restrictions announced this week.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw said Thursday that provincial messaging makes it clear the health-care system is in trouble and as long as Albertans follow the legally mandatory measures, the cases of COVID-19 will drop.
“With the recent restrictions that were just announced this week, we know that broad, sweeping changes that have been put in place will reduce the number of close contacts that people have on a regular daily basis,” Hinshaw said.
“We can't tell for sure what that future brings but I do believe that these measures that are put in place will have an impact on our spread, and, of course, the full impact will be up to Albertans and we'll be watching very closely to make sure that it is going to be sufficient.”
Premier Jason Kenney and Hinshaw announced the new restrictions on Tuesday, which include the closure of casinos, gyms and dine-in service at restaurants, a ban on outdoor social gatherings and a mandatory mask mandate across the province.
Retail services, shopping malls and places of worship must also reduce capacity to 15 per cent of fire code occupancy.
Hinshaw added the seriousness of the COVID-19 situation is underscored by the fact the province has asked Albertans to not gather together over the holidays when they normally would have.
On Thursday, Alberta reported 1,566 new cases of COVID-19, with the total number of active cases at 20,163.
In the Edmonton Zone, which includes the city and surrounding municipalities, there are 9,464 active cases of COVID-19 while the city of Edmonton has 7,715 active cases.
There are 682 people in hospital, including 124 in the ICU, provincewide. Thirteen more deaths raised the provincial death toll to 666.
Earlier Thursday, the NDP released internal Alberta Health Services (AHS) projections that show the Edmonton Zone could see 564 residents in hospital by Dec. 24, and 111 in intensive care — a 50-per-cent increase for both statistics.
Kerry Williamson, spokesman for AHS, confirmed that data is from the health authority's “early warning system tool” which predicts hospitalization and ICU numbers and helps plan for changes in demand. It provides a point in time forecast and is updated throughout the day.
“In the coming weeks, approximately 2,250 acute care beds, and 425 ICU beds will be allocated for patients with COVID-19 across the province,” Williamson said.
“This is much higher than the worst-case scenario of 189 required ICU beds — and the 1,065 required acute care beds — forecast by the early warning system tool.”
The latest numbers from the province show there are 371 people in hospital in the Edmonton Zone and 72 in intensive care.
Meanwhile, Hinshaw said there are currently active alerts or COVID-19 outbreaks at 432 schools, or about 18 per cent of all schools in the province. They have a combined total of 1,789 active cases.
In Edmonton Catholic Schools, outbreaks of COVID-19 were declared at Corpus Christi, Our Lady of the Prairies, and St. Dominic schools.
In Edmonton Public Schools, outbreaks were declared at Montrose, Donnan, Hardisty, Avonmore, Johnny Bright, Caernarvon, John A. Mcdougall, and Aldergrove schools.
NEW FUNDING
Late Thursday, the province announced $20 million in funding over four years to the La Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute (AVI) at the University of Alberta.
The funding will “accelerate leading-edge research and commercialization of pharmaceutical and vaccine treatments.” Recently, the AVI received more than $5 million from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to develop antiviral drugs, vaccines and diagnostics in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.