Though there were only dozens of cases of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 reported in Canada, health officials were resigned that the pandemic would eventually spread into Alberta.
A news bulletin went out in the late afternoon March 5, with few details aside from confirmation that a presumptive case had been confirmed.
Less than an hour later, the province’s chief medical officer of health took to the podium.
“Uh, you all know, my name is Dr. Deena Hinshaw,” she said. “I’m here, as you know, to provide an update on COVID-19 in Alberta.”
Hinshaw went on to provide more details: the presumptive case was a woman in her 50s who had been on board the Grand Princess cruise ship, which was quarantined off the coast of California.
The provincial government sent word to travellers returning from outside Canada: monitor your symptoms. The next day, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney commented on the first case.
“Obviously, we are concerned about this initial presumptive case,” he said. “Given the breadth of this virus around the world, [it was] likely inevitable that we would see some manifestation of it here in Alberta.”
Nearly a year later, Hinshaw needed to introduce herself to Albertans no longer — she had become a fixture when it came to her daily updates on cases, hospitalizations, outbreaks and deaths.
But the province she delivered her messages to had changed.
Since that first case a year ago, 133,202 other Albertans have tested positive for the virus. Nearly 2,000 Albertans have died.
“It is important to remember that every part of this province, at every sector of society, has been touched by this virus,” Hinshaw said recently.
WATCH | The following animation shows active case rates, adjusted for population, in each of the 132 “local geographic areas” defined by Alberta Health over the course of the pandemic. The darker the area, the more active cases at that time. You can pause the video and use the slider to explore the changes over time:
Active COVID-19 cases, per 100,000 people, from April 2020 to February 2021. Map is divided into 132 ‘local geographic areas,’ as defined by Alberta Health. 0:32
A crisis in long-term care
Allan Pasutto, 86, of Penhold, received his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccination in late February of this year.
“I’m very happy to be alive,” Pasutto said.
But during the darkest early days of the pandemic, a vaccine seemed a world away. Whispers of promising research trials still cautioned developments were months, if not years, away.
In the early months of the pandemic, the virus devastated multiple long-term care homes across Alberta. At the McKenzie Towne Continuing Care Centre in Calgary, more than 100 residents and staff tested positive, and 20 people died.
“It was absolutely horrifying,” Renee Laboucane said in December, reflecting on the outbreak that claimed the life of her mother.
Twenty people died at the McKenzie Towne Continuing Care Centre in Calgary, a facility operated by Revera, during the first wave of COVID-19. More than 100 residents and staff tested positive for COVID-19 at the centre. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)
As the pandemic grew, outbreaks at long-term care homes became typical while remaining terrifying realities for the families involved.
Cases at some long-term care centres approached 100, while one Edmonton long-term care centre became the deadliest in the province, with 55 deaths.
In mid-February, the premier announced that all residents in long-term care and designated supportive living had received their second shot of the vaccine.
But the grim reality remains that two of every three deaths linked to COVID-19 in Alberta came within these facilities.
WATCH | Renee Laboucane discusses outbreak at Calgary long-term care home, which claimed the life of her mother:
Slaughterhouses become front lines
In mid-April, cases at a Cargill slaughterhouse in High River skyrocketed, with at least 950 staff — nearly half its workforce — testing positive for COVID-19. The outbreak remains the largest workplace outbreak in Canada.
And it wasn’t just Cargill. In late April, the small community of Brooks went from just a few cases of COVID-19 to one of the province’s biggest hotspots.
Three employees of the JBS Foods meat-processing plant were diagnosed with COVID-19 in mid-April, and by the end of the month more than 300 workers had been diagnosed and nearly 900 total cases were recorded throughout the city.
It meant that Brooks — which has 0.3 per cent of the province’s population — represented 26 per cent of its active cases.
The animated chart below shows the top 10 local health zones in Alberta for active cases of COVID-19 over the last two weeks of April 2020. Use the play/pause button at the bottom left to start or stop the animation, or drag the slider to adjust the date displayed:
Similar rapid spread was felt this year at the Olymel slaughterhouse in Red Deer, Alta., which has been linked to at least 500 cases of COVID-19 and four deaths.
That slaughterhouse temporarily shut down Feb. 15, but not before it drew a warning from Alberta Health Services that cautioned that one in five of its 1,850 workers was believed to be infected.
Sixty per cent, AHS said, held at least one job outside the slaughterhouse.
Ariana Quesada, 16, holds up a photo of her father, Benito Quesada, in front of the RCMP detachment in High River, Alta. Her father died after becoming one of hundreds of workers at Cargill’s High River meat-processing facility to contract COVID-19. The company is now the subject of a police investigation. (Justin Pennell/CBC)
For those who have felt loss as outbreaks proliferate among workforces, the grief remains long after case counts go down.
Ariana Quesada, 16, filed a formal complaint against Cargill in early January, asking police to investigate potential criminal negligence in the death of her father.
“We have filed a complaint … to finally bring justice to my dad … to finally hold Cargill accountable for what they did,” Quesada said at the time, fighting back tears.
From large complexes to small gatherings
Earlier this year, total cases at Alberta’s oilsands sites crept past 1,000. Correctional centres in communities like Peace River popped up on Alberta’s outbreak list, while hamlets like Gunn saw cases flare up too.
Though Calgary and Edmonton frequently were found atop Alberta’s list of active cases last fall, rural Alberta saw the highest active rates of COVID-19 in late January.
Of course, the spread of the virus wasn’t concentrated to certain facilities or communities. It spread in churches, hospitals, small businesses, fitness studios and within households.
It devastated families and it shut down businesses, and the economic impacts and the lasting grief of the past year will continue to be felt long after the province has enough vaccines to go around.
WATCH: Alberta announces its first case of COVID-19:
Alberta’s chief medical officer of health says the patient is a woman in her 50s who lives in the Calgary zone. She was on board the Grand Princess cruise ship before it was quarantined off the coast of California, returning to Alberta on Feb. 21 and self-isolating at home on Feb. 28. 19:06
On March 6, 2020, one day after Hinshaw announced the first presumptive case of COVID-19 in the province, she took to the podium again, reading from a page of prepared remarks.
“I want to let you know of news that I learned in this past hour. We have a second presumptive case of COVID-19 in Alberta,” she said, adding public health would be following up with close contacts.
“I want to stress that the risk of getting sick from COVID-19 remains low at this time in Alberta. However, with these recent developments, we are anticipating this risk may increase in the weeks to come.”
Some Ontario doctors have started offering a free shot that can protect babies from respiratory syncytial virus while Quebec will begin its immunization program next month.
The new shot called Nirsevimab gives babies antibodies that provide passive immunity to RSV, a major cause of serious lower respiratory tract infections for infants and seniors, which can cause bronchiolitis or pneumonia.
Ontario’s ministry of health says the shot is already available at some doctor’s offices in Ontario with the province’s remaining supply set to arrive by the end of the month.
Quebec will begin administering the shots on Nov. 4 to babies born in hospitals and delivery centers.
Parents in Quebec with babies under six months or those who are older but more vulnerable to infection can also book immunization appointments online.
The injection will be available in Nunavut and Yukon this fall and winter, though administration start dates have not yet been announced.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
-With files from Nicole Ireland
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Polio cases are rising ahead of a new vaccination campaign in Pakistan, where violence targeting health workers and the police protecting them has hampered years of efforts toward making the country polio-free.
Since January, health officials have confirmed 39 new polio cases in Pakistan, compared to only six last year, said Anwarul Haq of the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication.
The new nationwide drive starts Oct. 28 with the aim to vaccinate at least 32 million children. “The whole purpose of these campaigns is to achieve the target of making Pakistan a polio-free state,” he said.
Pakistan regularly launches campaigns against polio despite attacks on the workers and police assigned to the inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Most of the new polio cases were reported in the southwestern Balochistan and southern Sindh province, following by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and eastern Punjab province.
The locations are worrying authorities since previous cases were from the restive northwest bordering Afghanistan, where the Taliban government in September suddenly stopped a door-to-door vaccination campaign.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. Authorities in Pakistan have said that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions beyond the Afghan border, as people from both sides frequently travel to each other’s country.
The World Health Organization has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023. Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy this June for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, according to WHO.
Health officials in Pakistan say they want the both sides to conduct anti-polio drives simultaneously.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter methods like condoms, the “morning after” pill and birth control pills for free under a new rule the White House proposed on Monday.
Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or “morning after” pills from local storefronts without a prescription.
The proposal comes days before Election Day, as Vice President Kamala Harris affixes her presidential campaign to a promise of expanding women’s health care access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to undo nationwide abortion rights two years ago. Harris has sought to craft a distinct contrast from her Republican challenger, Donald Trump, who appointed some of the judges who issued that ruling.
“The proposed rule we announce today would expand access to birth control at no additional cost for millions of consumers,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Bottom line: women should have control over their personal health care decisions. And issuers and providers have an obligation to comply with the law.”
The emergency contraceptives that people on private insurance would be able to access without costs include levonorgestrel, a pill that needs to be taken immediately after sex to prevent pregnancy and is more commonly known by the brand name “Plan B.”
Without a doctor’s prescription, women may pay as much as $50 for a pack of the pills. And women who delay buying the medication in order to get a doctor’s prescription could jeopardize the pill’s effectiveness, since it is most likely to prevent a pregnancy within 72 hours after sex.
If implemented, the new rule would also require insurers to fully bear the cost of the once-a-day Opill, a new over-the-counter birth control pill that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last year. A one-month supply of the pills costs $20.
Federal mandates for private health insurance to cover contraceptive care were first introduced with the Affordable Care Act, which required plans to pick up the cost of FDA-approved birth control that had been prescribed by a doctor as a preventative service.
The proposed rule would not impact those on Medicaid, the insurance program for the poorest Americans. States are largely left to design their own rules around Medicaid coverage for contraception, and few cover over-the-counter methods like Plan B or condoms.
