Date of publication: 06 Apr 2022 • 12 minutes ago • 9 minutes reading • Join the discussion A woman walks on the Peace Bridge during a sunny day in Calgary on Wednesday, 6 April 2022. Photo by Steven Wilhelm / Postmedia
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Fourth doses of COVID-19 increase as Alberta approaches another wave of virus
Walden Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacist Brian Jones immunizes Harjit Khaira with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for COVID-19 in Calgary on Monday, April 5, 2021. Photo by Gavin Young / Postmedia As new sewage and case data suggest Alberta is heading for another wave of COVID-19 infections, the province is expanding access to fourth vaccination shots. From April 12, all Alberts aged 70 and over will be able to receive a fourth dose of vaccine if at least five months have passed since their previous vaccination. Extended fitness also includes First Nations, Métis and Inuit people aged 65 and over and all seniors in care settings, regardless of age. The news comes as the province reported a jump in viral hospitalizations and 30 deaths last week, as test-positive rates remain high. Read more.
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Alberta reports 5,549 new cases, 30 deaths in seven days
The following are the COVID-19 numbers released today by Alberta Health, covering a seven-day period from March 29 to April 4:
The county reports 5,549 new COVID-19 cases in the last seven days, through 21,314 tests completed. There are 990 people in hospitals with COVID-19, an increase of 26 from March 30. There are 444 people in the ICU, down three from March 30. There were another 30 COVID-19-related deaths in Alberta Health Services, bringing the total to 4,104 since the pandemic began. 789 deaths have been reported in Alberta since January 1. Alberta’s two-dose vaccination rate for the population aged 12 and over is 86.7 percent.
Hospital admissions in Alberta are less than 1,000
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The exterior of Rockyview Hospital in Calgary on April 5, 2021. Photo by Christopher Landry / Postmedia
“So many bodies piled up”: Hong Kong funerals flooded with COVID victims
Funeral director Lok Chung tailors offerings at the Peace of Mind Funeral Home in Hong Kong. Photo by Tyrone Siu / REUTERS The number of traditional wooden coffins is insufficient in Hong Kong as authorities try to add a morgue to the financial center’s battle against COVID-19, which is flooding ceremonial halls. “I have never seen so many corpses piled up together,” said funeral director Lok Chung, 37, who works around the clock, with about 40 funerals held in March, from about 15 in an average month. “I have never seen family members so upset, so frustrated, so helpless,” Chung said, wearing a sober gray suit and a black polo shirt. Since the fifth wave of the coronavirus hit this year, Hong Kong has reported more than one million infections and more than 8,000 deaths.
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Calls to the health line reveal the despair of caregivers in Quebec as COVID was hit
Paramedics are evacuated after picking up a resident at Herron Nursing Home in April 2020. Photo by John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette Recently released recordings of phone calls to a health line run by the Quebec government in 2020 reveal how desperate the owners of a long-term care home were during the first wave of the pandemic. The two recordings by the owners of the private house Herron, where 47 people died in the spring of 2020, were included in evidence for the forensic investigation investigating the deaths from COVID-19 in the province. In the recordings published today by La Presse, a panicked Samantha Chowieri and her husband call the non-emergency health line twice, telling a nurse that they are looking for mass examinations in the residents. Read more.
Alberta media briefing on COVID-19 delayed until Thursday
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Due to a planning conflict, the weekly multimedia availability # COVID19AB scheduled for today will be moved to tomorrow. @CMOH_Alberta is testifying in court and is not available this afternoon. The case report and hospitalization will normally be posted at 15:30 today.
– Jason Copping (@JasonCoppingAB) April 6, 2022
The county will not deliver the weekly COVID-19 until tomorrow, though Alberts will still be able to find the latest statistics today.
In a tweet, Health Secretary Jason Kopping said Alberta’s chief health doctor, Dr. Dina Hinshaw, was in court today, testifying at a COVID-19 health hearing.
Copping said the usual numbers and data will be posted online at 3:30 p.m.
Experts worry that COVID messages may prevent the fourth dose from being taken
A healthcare worker prepares a COVID-19 vaccine at an emerging clinic at Village Square on June 6, 2021. Photo by Gavin Young / Postmedia Network / Archives Some experts are concerned that government messages about the state of the COVID-19 pandemic could prevent fourth-dose vaccines. Eligibility for fourth installments is being extended to some provinces after the National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommended that people aged 70 and over receive a second booster.
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Ontario is opening a fourth installment for residents over the age of 60 on Thursday, while Quebec will do the same next week and several other provinces are making downloads available to older people. Read more.
Quebec health director warns people will die if state of emergency is lifted immediately
Dr. Luc Boileau says it is necessary to be “realistic”. Photo by Pierre Obendrauf / Montreal Gazette Ending Quebec’s state of emergency on Thursday would be tantamount to killing people, the province’s interim director of public health warned on Wednesday. Dr. Luc Boileau made the remarks as he tabled before a legislative committee in favor of Bill 28, which would extend some of the government’s emergency powers over the past two years until December 31, 2022. The government needs these powers to maintain the effectiveness of the province’s healthcare system, Boileau said.
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“COVID is not a cold”: Germany reverses course to end compulsory isolation
Germany will not end mandatory isolation for most people who catch COVID-19, the health minister said on Wednesday, reversing concerns that lifting quarantine restrictions would indicate the pandemic was over. “The coronavirus is not a cold. That is why isolation must continue after an infection, “said Health Minister Carl Lauterbach on Twitter, adding that he was wrong in proposing an end to compulsory quarantine. According to existing rules, people with COVID must be isolated for at least seven days. Lauterbach last week proposed a shift to a voluntary five-day period of self-isolation by recommending a COVID test later this year.
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Read more. Tuesday
Hinshaw testifies that certain personal freedoms had to be restricted to protect all Alberts from the threat of COVID-19
Alberta Chief Health Officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw. Photo by David Bloom / Postmedia Alberta’s chief medical officer acknowledged on Tuesday that measures taken to combat the COVID-19 pandemic had affected individual rights. But Dr Dina Hinsaw said at a hearing that challenged her public health mandate that the measures were the “last resort” needed to protect people from the coronavirus and maintain the viability of the healthcare system. After a cross-examination by attorney Leighton Gray, one of two lawyers representing the parties to the constitutionality of Hinshaw’s mandates, the doctor said such measures were needed when voluntary compliance did not prevent the disease from spreading.
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“With many of the health orders you made known, the Alberta government knew they were restricting or restricting individual freedoms. . . is not that right;” Gray asked. “The last resort was to restrict these freedoms when the ability to mitigate the risk of COVID to the population was not possible with it. . . “Voluntary means that had been used before,” Hinshaw said. Read more. Tuesday
More boosts? The Vax Advisory Committee tells the province to prepare
Provinces and regions should prepare quickly to offer fourth doses of COVID-19 vaccine in the coming weeks, starting with people over the age of 80 and long-term caregivers, the National Advisory Committee on Tuesday recommended.
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NACI unreservedly recommended a second souvenir for people between 70 and 79 years old and …
