Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is optimistic about the province’s public health crisis going forward, as COVID numbers start to steadily decline.
The premier was on hand for Tuesday’s COVID-19 update, where he shared that Alberta’s situation is finally moving in the right direction, but it’s important to remember that hospitals across the province are still overclocked.
Active cases are significantly down compared to about this time in September, and the declining stats are a positive sign that pressure could soon be easing up on our hospitals–but we’re not out of the woods by a long shot.
READ MORE: New COVID infections drop, hospitalizations continue downward trend
“Right now our ICUs are at 75 per cent capacity, down from 97 per cent just six weeks ago,” Kenney said. “There are 964 people in hospital with COVID-19–a 15 per cent decline from the peak of this fourth wave on Sept. 27.”
Things are getting better, but hospitals are still struggling. Without the province’s additional 203 surge beds, Alberta would be at 163 per cent ICU capacity.
Healthcare workers have said in the past that although hospital capacity is increased by adding beds–staff cannot be increased in the same way—meaning doctors and nurses are continuing to stretch themselves thin to cover several patients.
RELATED: Kenney urges COVID vigilance as we head into winter months
The premier also said he thinks the province may have avoided another holiday COVID spike this year.
“It’s been over a week since that long weekend, and I’m pleased to say that so far, we have not seen evidence of a Thanksgiving spike in cases,” Kenney said. “Although, we need to keep watching over the next few days.”
In 2020 it was around this time of year when the Thanksgiving spike jumpstarted the second wave of COVID-19 in Alberta, but we really saw how bad it got in the months afterward.
