In a COVID-19 update today, (Thursday, September 16) both Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Chief Medical of Health for Alberta, and Dr. Verna Yiu President and CEO of Alberta Health Services took to the podium.

Dr. Hinshaw began by saying that, “I will once again be providing regular COVID-19 updates twice a week. Given the crisis that our province is facing and the State of Public Health Emergency that was issued yesterday, I will keep Albertans informed and will be here regularly to answer questions to the best of my ability.

The first thing Dr. Hinshaw addressed was that if a person is seeking a negative COVID test result to access a business or service, you must get the test privately. Hinshaw suggested, instead of paying for a private test, people can have a free immunization shot.

The COVID numbers for Thursday, September 16 were 1,718 new cases with a positivity rate of 10.6 per cent.

Hospitalizations increased by another 19 admissions in 24 hours for a total of 896.

ICU admissions increased by four patients for a total of 222.

Sadly, another 10 deaths have been reported bringing that total to 2,505.

Dr. Yiu reported that “This fourth wave has resulted in the sharpest increase in ICU patients that we have seen throughout the pandemic. […] We do not have the ability to simply open more and more ICU spaces and hospital beds and we do not have an endless number of staff that can provide critical care. I am aware that one of our internal planning documents was shared publicly this afternoon which suggests we are days away from having our ICUs overwhelmed. There is no question that our ICUs are under extreme pressure. 

Once again, both doctors asked that those who are not vaccinated please do so. Dr. Yui says, “We are seeing an increase in people booking appointments to be immunized in the past several days, this is very positive, and I thank you and I thank everyone who is immunized.”

Cochrane is reporting 96 active cases while Rocky View County has 149 active COVID-19 cases.