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Are you experiencing COVID-19 symptoms?
Before calling Health Link use the COVID-19 Assessment & Testing Tool to check symptoms.
Health Link continues to experience high daily call volumes and Alberta Health Services (AHS) is encouraging all Albertans to assess their symptoms or the symptoms of someone they are caring for using the online assessment and testing tool before calling Health Link.
AHS has updated the COVID-19 Assessment and Testing Tool to make it easier for Albertans to assess their symptoms, determine if they should talk to someone about their symptoms, such as their doctor or Health Link staff, access self-care tips to help manage mild COVID-19 symptoms at home and to determine whether or not they are eligible for PCR testing.
Help us tell the COVID-19 story in Edmonton
As Alberta continues to navigate the unpredictable waves of COVID-19, we’re looking to hear your stories on this evolving situation.
- If you are a healthcare worker, how does the Omicron variant compare with past waves of the pandemic?
- Did you or someone you love catch Omicron over the holidays? If so, how did you fare?
- Are you a parent? How do you feel about your child/children returning to in-class learning?
- Have you had any issues booking/receiving your COVID-19 booster shot? If so, tell us what happened?
- Have you or a loved one had a surgery rescheduled or cancelled in recent weeks?
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How have you coped with testing requirements and rapid test kits?
Friday
Canada close to removing mandatory COVID testing for fully vaxxed travellers: sources
The Canadian Press
Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos says the federal government will announce changes to COVID-19 measures at Canada’s borders next week.
“With the worst of Omicron now behind us, our government is actively reviewing the measures in place at our borders and we should be able to communicate changes on this next week,” Duclos told reporters.
On Friday, CBC News reported the government is close to removing mandatory PCR COVID testing for Canadians who are fully vaccinated and who travel outside the country.
Currently, the government advises against all non-essential international travel.
Anyone travelling within Canada by plane, passenger train or boat must be vaccinated against COVID-19, and international travellers are subject to COVID-19 test requirements.
Duclos says the worst of the latest wave of the pandemic is now behind Canada, and measures will be tweaked accordingly.
Friday
Endemic vs. pandemic: What it means to ‘learn to live with’ COVID-19
Sharon Kirkey, National Post
Endemic is a slippery term, said infectious diseases historian Esyllt Jones. It’s meant to imply that a pathogen has become stable and predictable, less whirlwind, which isn’t a great way to describe where we’re at with SARS-CoV-2, Jones said.
What it doesn’t necessarily mean is less virulent, or “very low” or “not a problem.” And while Spain and other countries are pivoting to the “flu-ization” of COVID, it’s not clear yet whether SARS-CoV-2 will become flu-like, because it hasn’t yet settled into a seasonal niche and has been spreading among humans for only two years, said Ross Upshur, of the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. The virus is still evolving, it’s not clear where it’s headed, and it likely has plenty of genetic space to explore. Omicron came out of nowhere, and though it has been linked with “milder” infections, “There is nothing in evolutionary biology that necessitates the disease becoming milder as it passes through humans,” Upshur said.
“So we need to really just keep vigilant and not just say, ‘It’s over. Yahoo.’”
The endemic narrative is more about what we desperately want, Jones and others have said — to just move on. “It’s endemic because we say it is, if you like.”
Thursday
QR code reader app no longer available, hospitalizations and active cases drop
Kellen Taniguchi
The QR code reader app businesses used for the province’s Restrictions Exemption Program (REP) is no longer available to download from the app store.
Premier Jason Kenney announced the REP would be cancelled midnight Tuesday during Tuesday’s COVID-19 update, however he said businesses would still have the ability to implement their own vaccine passport program.
During Thursday’s update, Health Minister Jason Copping said the province’s QR code reader app is no longer available to download.
However, Copping said businesses who already have the app downloaded on a device will still be able to use it for “quite some time” and businesses can ask to see a printed proof of vaccination as well.
Alberta hospitals saw a decline in COVID-19 hospitalizations and the province reported 22 deaths on Thursday, amid a week where some public health measures, including the REP, were lifted.
There are 1,586 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, a decrease of 29 from the previous day. Of those in hospital, 126 are in ICU, a drop of nine patients from the previous day.
Active cases continued to trend downward on Thursday, with 25,339 active cases reported in the province, a decrease of 1,557 cases. The Edmonton Zone, which consists of the city of Edmonton and surrounding areas, is home to 7,298 of those active cases.
Alberta reported 1,363 new cases of the virus on Thursday and a test positivity rate of about 27 per cent.
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Thursday
University of Alberta president details return to campus plan, masking will be required
Kellen Taniguchi
Masks will continue to be mandatory when students and staff return to the University of Alberta campus for in-person learning on Feb. 28, the university’s president said.
Bill Flanagan, U of A president, issued a statement Thursday evening and said the school has been preparing for the resumption of campus activities for several weeks.
On Tuesday, Premier Jason Kenney announced the immediate cancellation of Alberta’s Restrictions Exemption Program (REP), the removal of a mask mandate in schools starting next week, and a three-phase plan to remove more restrictions in March, including the provincewide mask mandate.
“To comply with the City of Edmonton bylaws and to help us transition back to full capacity in-person activities over the next couple of months, there will be no immediate changes to our masking safety measures,” said Flanagan.
Flanagan said the university community has a high vaccination rate, with more than 97 per cent being fully vaccinated and three per cent holding a U of A vaccination exemption. He added the university has seen few COVID-19 cases and no outbreaks over the past two semesters.
Thursday
Students could be split on masking up as UCP goes after teachers for safety concerns
Eva Ferguson, Calgary
The UCP government is attacking teachers for raising safety concerns and exploring legal options around unsafe workplaces and classrooms if students are not masked.
With schools still receiving some of the 16 million masks shipped out by the UCP to reduce COVID transmission, teachers and parents were surprised this week when Premier Jason Kenney announced K-12 students would no longer be required to wear masks in schools starting Monday.
The Alberta Teachers’ Association met with more than 500 members in the central north on Thursday, discussing government policy and how teachers were caught off guard by the speed at which the UCP changed its tune on the importance of masking.
“We want a return to normal, too, but we are concerned about the speed of which this is happening,” said ATA president Jason Schilling.
“We were never consulted and school boards were never consulted.”
Thursday
As Omicron wave declines, COVID-19 spread remains high in parts of rural Alberta
Jason Herring, Calgary
Wastewater and active case data show COVID-19 spread is on the downslope in Calgary and Edmonton.
But it’s a different story in parts of rural Alberta, where infections continue to surge as the province moves to ditch public health measures.
The best indicator of community transmission of the virus currently available in Alberta is wastewater data, according to Dr. Jon Meddings, Dean of the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary.
He said Alberta’s two big cities, as well as other communities including Banff, saw virus spread peak in early January. Medium-sized cities such as Lethbridge and Red Deer saw a peak around the end of January, while rural municipalities such as Lacombe continue to see an increase in virus spread.
That’s not surprising, Meddings said, as the ultra-contagious Omicron variant likely entered Alberta first through Calgary and Edmonton, both of which are home to international airports.
“To me, the pattern is that this is coming from the largest centres. It reached the peak there in early January, and two or three weeks later that peak is in the smaller rural centres, and some of them are still going through it. This is unsurprising,” Meddings said.
Meddings also said wastewater data indicate the Omicron wave is declining more slowly than it took to climb in Calgary and Edmonton.
Thursday
Ottawa sent nearly $12 million in CERB payments to applicants with foreign addresses
Christopher Nardi, National Post
The federal government sent nearly $12 million in Canada Emergency Response Benefit payments to people with foreign addresses in the first seven months of the pandemic.
Documents tabled in the House of Commons last week following questions from Conservative MP Jamie Schmale reveal that 1,610 people received the pandemic financial aid benefit despite applying with a mailing address outside of Canada.
Because they were able to apply for multiple months in a row, the government says it paid them a total of $11.9 million by the time the program was put to bed and replaced by different benefits in September 2020.
That, despite eligibility requirements for the federal government’s now-defunct $2,000-per-month CERB program clearly stating that “the benefit was available to workers residing in Canada who were at least 15 years old.”
For example, “individuals who normally resided in Canada, but were temporarily abroad, for example because of work or vacation, and prevented from returning to Canada because of COVID-19, may have been eligible if they planned to return to work and they normally lived in Canada.”
Source: EdmontonJournal
