More than 1,000 people have now died from COVID-19 in Alberta, though active cases have continued to follow a downward trend over the past five days.
The declining case numbers seen over the holiday season are, in part, due to the fact that laboratories have performed fewer tests in recent days, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province’s chief medical officer of health, said at a news conference on Monday.
Yet despite the drop in active and new cases, the number of people being treated in hospitals for the illness has not declined.
Hinshaw provided case numbers for the most recent five-day period.
Dec. 23 — Alberta reported 1,007 new cases, completed 15,585 tests and added 30 more deaths.
Dec. 24 — Alberta reported 1,191 new cases, completed 17,845 tests and added 18 more deaths.
Dec. 25 — Alberta reported 914 new cases, completed 14,193 tests and added 17 more deaths.
Dec. 26 — Alberta reported 459 new cases, completed 6,866 tests and added 27 more deaths.
Dec. 27 — Alberta reported 917 new cases, completed 9,633 tests and added 20 more deaths.
That brings the death toll since the pandemic began to 1,002.
As of Monday, the province had 15,487 active cases, while 878 people were being treated in hospitals for the virus, including 148 in ICU beds.
Hinshaw characterized Monday’s update as “difficult,” given that she had to report 112 deaths had been added to the total over that five-day period.
Fewer tests over the holidays
It will likely take several weeks before the trend of declining cases is reflected in the number of deaths and hospitalizations and ICU admissions, she said.
“We know that things like deaths, hospitalizations, ICU, those are what we call lagging indicators, because they do happen at a delay of one to two weeks after we start to see our case numbers change,” she said.
“So we would expect that those numbers would take longer to start to come down than our case numbers.”
WATCH | A doctor’s account from an Alberta ICU during Christmas:
Dr. Raiyan Chowdhury is an intensive care physician at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton. He shares what it’s like working in an ICU during Christmas. 0:44
Over the holidays, fewer people went to testing centres, she said, so the lower number of tests would translate into lower numbers of positive cases.
The positivity rate over much of that five-day period shifted between six and seven per cent, but jumped to more than nine per cent on Dec. 27, she said.
New variant appears in Alberta
The province’s top public health doctor announced that Alberta has reported its first case of a new variant of the virus, first seen earlier this month in the United Kingdom.
“It is important to remember that the public health measures in place are protective against this variant, and the best thing we can do to protect each other is to follow them,” Hinshaw said.
“Following public health measures is in part also contributing to our declining cases.”
WATCH | Alberta records first COVID-19 variant in recent traveller from the U.K., says Dr. Deena Hinshaw:
Alberta traveller who tested positive for the COVID-19 variant did “everything they were supposed to do,” says Alberta’s Dr. Deena Hinshaw. 2:15
There is some evidence that the variant may be more infectious than other strains of the virus, she said, but there is no evidence that it has spread in the province beyond that single case.
“We are working with the Public Health Agency of Canada to be able to get the flight details and the list of individuals who were on the same plane,” Hinshaw said.
“There’s a time delay between when that individual arrived and when the symptoms began, and so it’s something that’s a theoretical possibility of transmission … at the moment, we have looked at the situation and believe that the risk is very low, but we will be making those phone calls to make sure that we are providing that additional information to anyone who may have been seated near this individual on the flight.”
WATCH | Alberta paramedics push for place on COVID-19 vaccine priority list:
Paramedics in Alberta say the uncontrolled nature of their work as first responders should give them high priority for COVID-19 vaccines, while dentists in British Columbia want to be among the second round of health-care workers to be vaccinated. 1:48
The encouraging downward trends reflect the collective actions taken by Albertans over the past two weeks, Hinshaw said.
“We must remain attentive to the orders in place and continue to follow them closely to make sure that we don’t see a spike in mid-January that ignites a dangerous spread in 2021.”
‘Tragic milestone’
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney issued a statement calling the death toll a “tragic milestone” and said those 1,002 people were mothers, fathers, husbands or wives who will be mourned and missed.
“But even as we reach this painful milestone, there is reason for hope,” Kenney said.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, pictured in September, said more than 6,000 Albertans have received their first vaccine doses and the province can ‘see the light at the end of the tunnel.’ (Todd Korol/The Canadian Press)
“As of today, more than 6,000 Albertans have received their first vaccine doses. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. And so on this grim day, I ask all Albertans to double down on our public health measures. Let’s prevent as many Albertans as we can from experiencing the same pain and loss that so many already have.”
NDP Official Opposition deputy leader Sarah Hoffman offered her condolences to the families and friends of those who have died of COVID-19.
“We continue to call on Premier Jason Kenney and the UCP to do more to prevent the spread and further tragic loss of life,” Hoffman said in a statement.
“We need more staff in Alberta’s continuing care centres, we need an actual plan for school re-entry in January and we need updated modelling on COVID-19 so that we have the facts and transparency on the risks we face as this pandemic carries on.”
VANCOUVER – The union for locked-out port workers in British Columbia says the BC Maritime Employers Association cut off talks in less than an hour Saturday, refusing to budge on a final offer that the union has so far rejected.
A statement from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Ship & Dock Foremen Local 514 says a meeting with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service ended with the employers “refusing to bargain” and trying to “impose significant concessions” on the union.
ILWU Local 514 President Frank Morena says the employers are using “confrontational tactics” to avoid negotiating a new collective agreement, in order to force the federal government to intervene.
Morena says union negotiators were planning to bargain late into Saturday evening and through the weekend with the help of a federal mediator, but he says the employers association ended the talks after meeting with the mediator for just 12 minutes.
He says the concessions sought by port employers are “inflammatory and unacceptable,” and says shipping firms and retailers are all waiting for the lockout to end.
A statement from the employers association issued Saturday after talks broke down says there was “no progress made … and no further meetings are scheduled.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 10, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
