Immunocompromised Albertans eligible for fourth dose

“Additional care and isolation protocols need to be implemented for all COVID positive patients to prevent the risk of transmission to other patients who are at risk for severe outcomes.”

The province’s most recent summary of new admissions, since late last week, indicates that 51 per cent of new admissions to non-ICU spaces are due to COVID infection, and 49 per cent are where the infection was not determined to be a cause of admission or where it was not possible to determine if it was.

For ICU admissions, 74 per cent are due to COVID, while 26 were in cases where it was incidental or not determined.

Hinshaw said this is a different trend than seen with previous variants and is due to the much higher transmissibility of Omicron.

She said it’s also true that someone may be admitted to hospital for another reason but a COVID infection can complicate their stay and their clinical outcome.

“The bottom line is that our acute care system remains under serious pressure and COVID-19 continues to pose a risk of severe outcomes to many Albertans.”

Later this week the province will begin posting online a summary of the proportion of new hospital admissions due to COVID compared to admissions due to other causes.

The province announced Tuesday that they will soon be opening up fourth doses of COVID-19 vaccine to more than 80,000 Albertans, most at risk for severe outcomes.

People aged 18 and older who have specific immunocompromising conditions can receive a booster five months after receiving their third dose.

Conditions include transplant recipients, individuals with chronic kidney disease on dialysis and recipients of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T-cell therapy. A full list is available at alberta.ca.

Eligible individuals can book appointments for fourth doses online with AHS and participating pharmacies by using the Alberta vaccine booking system or by calling 811 beginning Jan. 20.

The decision is in line with recommendations from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) and the Alberta Advisory Committee on Immunization (AACI),

Hinshaw said the third dose for these individuals is approximately equivalent to a third dose for others.

With the province limiting testing in the fifth wave, these confirmed cases do not accurately reflect the number of cases in the community.

An AHS spokesperson indicated there are currently 34 COVID-19 positive inpatients in the South Zone with seven of those in the ICU. There are seven inpatients at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital with three COVID-19 positive patients in the ICU.

Chinook Regional Hospital has 22 inpatients with four in the ICU. Brooks Health Centre has two inpatients; and Cardston Health Centre has one.

There are 70,223 known active cases in the province, down 2,145 in the past 24 hours, and 382,025 recovered cases in the province, up 5,415.

Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 455,660.

There are 3,279 new cases confirmed in the province in the past 24 hours.

Again these are only the confirmed cases and do not accurately reflect the number of cases in the province.

The province completed 8,995 tests in the past 24 hours.

The positivity rate is about 36.5 per cent.

Alberta has administered 8,071,666 doses of vaccine at the latest update.

Among new cases today, 20.5 per cent are unvaccinated, 5.1 per cent have had one dose, 56.7 have had two doses and 17.7 per cent have had three doses.

Among current hospitalizations, 33.9 per cent are unvaccinated, 4.2 per cent have had one dose, 41.8 have had two doses and 20.1 per cent have had three doses.

Among Alberta’s total population, 80.1 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine and 73.5 per cent have received two doses 29.2 per cent have received three doses.

There are four city outbreaks listed on AHS website, two in Brooks and one in Oyen.

There are 3,033 active cases and 24,621 recovered in the South Zone. The death total in the zone is at 299.

The province-wide reproductive value for the week of Jan. 10-16 is 1.00. It is 1.04 in Calgary Zone, 0.96 in Edmonton Zone and 0.98 in the rest of Alberta.

At the last update from Dec. 27-Jan. 2, the numbers were 1.35 in the province, 1.34 in Calgary Zone, 1.30 in Edmonton Zone and 1.54 in the rest of Alberta.

Cypress County has totaled 983 confirmed cases. There are 75 active cases, 902 recovered and six deaths. 70.1 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 65.5 per cent have two doses and 21.8 per cent have had three doses.

The County of Forty Mile has 379 total confirmed cases. There are 25 active cases, 349 recovered and there have been five deaths. 43.3 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 40.2 per cent have two doses and 13.3 per cent have had three doses.

The MD of Taber has 1,430 total confirmed cases — 79 active cases, 1,333 recovered and there have been 18 deaths. 50.7 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 47.3 per cent have two doses and 16.8 per cent have had three doses.

Special Areas No. 2 has 308 total confirmed cases – 20 active cases, 283 recovered and there have been three deaths.

Brooks has 2,359 total cases — 214 active cases and 2,121 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 24 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 571 cases — 32 active cases, 531 recovered and there have been eight deaths. 70.1 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 64.6 per cent have two doses and 18.9 per cent have had three doses. County of Newell vaccination numbers include Brooks and part of Special Areas No. 2.

The County of Warner has 884 total cases. There are 56 active cases, 823 are recovered cases and there have been five deaths in the county. 62.9 per cent of all residents have one dose of vaccine, 57.4 per cent have two doses and 19.7 per cent have had three doses.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 9,302 cases. There are 1,361 active cases, 7,873 recovered and there have been 68 deaths. Lethbridge County has 2,223 cases, 137 active cases, 2,076 recovered and there have been 20 deaths.

Not all the areas on the vaccination data map match the case count map.

by Chris Brown

Immunocompromised Albertans eligible for fourth dose

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