It appears COVID-related deaths are once again on the rise in Alberta.
In the latest COVID-19 update, the province reported an average of seven deaths per day, that’s up from five deaths per day reported in the previous week, and four deaths per day in the update before that.
Dr. Dan Gregson, an infectious disease expert with the University of Calgary, says it’s tragic since the province was doing comparatively well early in the pandemic.
“Somewhere along the way we lost our strength,” Gregson said. “Relative to British Columbia and Ontario, we’ve had more deaths per capita in Alberta.”
Dr. Gregson says COVID is likely contributing to more cases of heart attack and strokes as well, but in many cases, it can be difficult to attribute an exact cause of death because of the several health problems the virus can cause.
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“For someone who comes in with acute COVID and we treat you for it and they end up in the ICU and dying, that’s fairly straightforward,” Gregson said. “For someone who comes in with, let’s say, a heart attack, and they get COVID in hospital and they die, well was it from the heart attack or was it from COVID? So those are complications related to COVID.”
Gregson says data show a rise of strokes or other problems coming months after infection, suggesting COVID’s impact is greater than initially thought. He also says negative trends may continue, especially after the Easter holiday.
“I would suspect we’re going to see more cases over the next week or two, you know, transmission at these events, and transmission in households,” Gregson said. “So there is going to be this wave that follows us. Hopefully heading into mid-May, things will get better.”
More than 4,100 Albertans have died of COVID during the pandemic, with a couple hundred of those happening this year.
