The positivity rate of the COVID-19 test for Alberta has increased for the second week in a row, while more people have been admitted to the hospital and intensive care unit.
Provincial data show that Alberta’s total death toll from COVID-19 rose from 20 to 4,652 after the last week of reports.
The number of albicans in the hospital with COVID-19 increased to 559, including 23 ICU patients. One week ago there were 552 hospitalizations, including 16 people in the ICU.
The positivity rate of the seven-day PCR test in the province is 22.41%, an increase of about 4.1 percentage points over a week ago.
Through these tests, 1,691 new cases of COVID-19 were identified from July 12 to 18, 330 fewer than the previous week.
However, it is believed that more viruses are spreading through the community, because the data do not include positive results from the rapid tests and few people are eligible for a PCR test, according to provincial government eligibility rules.
Of all Albertans, including those who are not eligible, 77.4% have received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine; 81.6% have received at least one dose.
Only 38.5% of the total population has received three doses.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s medical director of health, announced Wednesday some changes related to how Alberta Health will display COVID-19 data on its board.
It will now show a graph that differentiates between the number of people in the hospital mainly due to COVID-19 and those who were admitted for non-COVID reasons but who tested positive for the disease.
The healthcare capability tab will be removed from the dashboard, because Alberta Health Services provides the same information on its website.
Alberta Health will stop showing individual outbreaks, instead of classifying the number of outbreaks per support life, long-term care, acute care, and more.
The graph of vaccine results will also be replaced by a summary of the available evidence, as well as a list of peer-reviewed sources.
Hinshaw said the results graph is being replaced because the transmissibility of the Omicron subvariant has made the data incomparable.
12 cases of smallpox in Alberta
According to the health ministry, there are 12 confirmed cases of smallpox in monkeys in Alberta. That’s an increase of four from Hinshaw’s last update on July 4th.
All cases are in the Edmonton and Calgary health areas.
Eight cases are found in the Calgary area, four in the Edmonton area.
There are a total of 604 confirmed cases across Canada as of 11 a.m. Wednesday, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada website.