COVID-19 live updates: 'Cautious approach' to manage impact of fifth wave; Trudeau slams 'fear mongering' over trucker vaccine mandate; Stollery beds to be used for adult emergency overflow
Watch this page throughout the day for updates on COVID-19 in Edmonton
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With COVID-19 news changing every day, we have created this file to keep you up-to-date on all the latest stories and information in and around Edmonton.
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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.
The tool has up-to-date guidance for adults, children and youth and is available at ahs.ca/covidscreen.
What’s happening now
- ‘Cautious approach’: Edmonton managing impact of COVID-19 fifth wave, Omicron variant city council hears
- Trudeau slams ‘fear mongering’ over COVID vaccine mandate for truckers
- Erin O’Toole dodges questions on trucker vaccine mandates
- Stollery Children’s Hospital beds in Edmonton to be used for adult emergency overflow
- National truckers group denounces highway protests by anti-vaccine-mandate truck convoy
- ‘Not a question of if’: University of Alberta research building better antivirals in prep for new variants, next pandemic
- ‘Sticker shock at the shelf:’ Prices creep higher as vaccine requirements stop some truckers from crossing the border
- Canada-wide warrant issued for anti-vax dad who disappeared with daughter
- Alberta COVID-19 hospitalizations climb to more than 1,190, active cases declining
- Lockdowns, staff shortages and ‘warning shots:’ inmate describes desperate situation at Edmonton Max during COVID’s fifth wave
- ‘Very nice spring, very nice summer’: Omicron will bring us closer to normal, experts say
- U.S. to require COVID vaccines for essential workers crossing borders
- Public Health Agency of Canada reportedly involved in ‘error’ on trucker vaccine rules
- Alberta prepares to open extra hospital beds as Omicron strains health-care system
- Nearly a quarter of all COVID-19 hospitalizations of people under the age of 18 in Alberta have occurred in the past month
- WHO recommends reduced dose Pfizer COVID vaccine for under 12s
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?
- How have you coped with testing requirements and rapid test kits?Send us your stories via email at: edm-feedback@postmedia.com
Monday
‘Cautious approach’: Edmonton managing impact of COVID-19 fifth wave, Omicron variant city council hears
Anna Junker
The recent impact of the fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Omicron variant has been “relatively minor” for Edmonton, city council heard Monday morning.
In an update on COVID-19, city manager Andre Corbould told council that there have been limited staff absences due to the virus, and operational impacts have been managed with small changes to a few of the city’s key services.
“The number of city employees who are ill or in isolation due to COVID-19 infection changes daily but has remained relatively low and steady for the past week,” Corbould said.
“We believe that the high vaccination rate of employees at 95 per cent who have received two shots and 25 per cent who have received a booster shot has helped blunt the spread of Omicron at the city.”
Corbould said if the peak of the fifth wave has been reached in Edmonton, “the back end of the curve should be very manageable.
Monday
Trudeau slams ‘fear mongering’ over COVID vaccine mandate for truckers
Reuters
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday accused conservative politicians of stoking fear that COVID-19 vaccine mandates for cross-border truck drivers are exacerbating supply chain disruptions and fuelling inflation.
The United States imposed a mandate, meant to aid the fight against the fast spreading Omicron variant of the coronavirus, on Jan. 22, while Canada’s started on Jan. 15. The trucking industry has warned the measure will take thousands of drivers off the roads during what is already a dire labor shortage in the industry.
Alberta’s conservative premier, Jason Kenney, called for a pause of the mandate last week, and on Monday posted pictures on Twitter of empty shelves in supermarkets, calling for “immediate action” by both the U.S. and Canadian federal governments.
“This is turning into a crisis,” Kenney wrote.
“I regret that the Conservative Party and conservative politicians are fear mongering to Canadians about the supply chain, but the reality is that vaccination is how we’re going to get through this,” Trudeau told reporters when asked about supply chain disruptions resulting from the policy.
Monday
Erin O’Toole dodges questions on trucker vaccine mandates
Catherine Levesque, National Post
Conservative leader Erin O’Toole won’t say if he supports the national truck convoy en route towards Ottawa to protest against the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for truck drivers who deliver goods across the Canada-United States border.
On Monday, O’Toole dodged multiple questions coming from reporters who were asking him to state his and his party’s position on the truckers protesting the vaccine mandate.
“It’s not for the leader of the opposition or a political party to attend a protest on the hill or a convoy. It’s up to politicians to advocate for solutions in a cost-of-living crisis, in a supply chain crisis in a way that’s responsible and respectful of the public health crisis we’re in,” he said.
O’Toole added he has been meeting with the Canadian Trucking Alliance for the past few months. “It’s been about finding responsible solutions to the cost of living and supply chain crisis facing our country, while also respecting public health. That’s what we need”, he said.
Sunday
Stollery Children’s Hospital beds in Edmonton to be used or adult emergency overflow
Ashley Joannou
Increasing demand for emergency room care means a space originally intended for kids at the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton has been temporarily converted to adult use for emergency overflow.
Alberta Health Services spokesman Kerry Williamson said in a statement Sunday that the renovated day ward space was not being used for pediatric surgical patients yet.
“Due to high patient demand and acuity in the University of Alberta Hospital emergency department, we will begin using the renovated day ward space at Stollery Children’s Hospital for adult or pediatric emergency overflow,” he said.
A memo from AHS dated Jan. 17, posted online over the weekend by NDP Leader Rachel Notley and others, says the change to accommodate emergency overflow would begin as early as Jan. 19.
“This re-allocation of space means the Stollery will maintain the current seven operating theatres, rather than advance to eight operating theatres as was planned for February 2022,” it says.
“If pediatric surgery volumes experience a surge, new options and solutions will be explored.”
Sunday
National truckers group denounces highway protests by anti-vaccine-mandate convoy
Stephanie Babych, Calgary
A national federation of provincial trucking groups has denounced a convoy of unvaccinated truckers driving across Canada in opposition to the vaccine mandate for cross-border travel.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) said in a statement Saturday that it “strongly disapproves” of the protests on public roads, highways and bridges. Protests that interfere with public safety are not an appropriate way to express disagreement with government policies, the CTA said.
“The Government of Canada and the United States have now made being vaccinated a requirement to cross the border. This regulation is not changing so, as an industry, we must adapt and comply with this mandate,” CTA president Stephen Laskowski said in the statement.
“The only way to cross the border, in a commercial truck or any other vehicle, is to get vaccinated.”
CTA added that a “vast majority” of the Canadian trucking industry is vaccinated, with an immunization rate among truckers similar to that of the general population.
Sunday
‘Not a question of if:’ University of Alberta research building better antivirals in prep for new variants, next pandemic
Nicole Bergot
Groundbreaking research out of the University of Alberta (U of A) shows why the antiviral drug remdesivir works against some viruses but not others, a key discovery in the battle against future pandemics.
The research paper, recently published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, reveals how the drug remdesivir — given to more than nine million COVID-19 patients worldwide — works against different families of viruses.
Researchers say that before now, it was not understood why remdesivir works in lab tests against some viruses including coronaviruses, Ebola, hepatitis C and Nipah virus, but not against others, like the flu.
Matthias Götte, professor and chair of medical microbiology and immunology at the U of A, noted that it all comes down to how well the drug tricks the polymerase, which is the replication engine of the virus and the target of remdesivir.
“Remdesivir is very well incorporated by the polymerase of SARS-CoV-2 and not so well by other viruses where it does not work,” he said in a recent U of A press release, adding that once it is incorporated, the drug inhibits all viral polymerases tested in the study.
Saturday
‘Sticker shock at the shelf:’ Prices creep higher as vaccine requirements stop some truckers from crossing the border
Ashley Joannou
When it comes to stocking Alberta grocery stores with citrus from the U.S. in the midst of a growing truck-driver shortage fuelled by new cross-border mandates, David Harrison warns that he “couldn’t buy a box of oranges or lemons this week to save my life.”
One of the buyers for Alberta’s H&W Produce grocery stores, which has multiple locations in Edmonton, Harrison said he’s already feeling the crunch from vaccine mandates at the U.S./Canada border that are keeping some truckers from being able to deliver goods, and he’s predicting that shoppers could experience more serious sticker shock when getting their groceries.
“We went from having a surplus of drivers that we could get quotes (from) for a reasonable rate to then the mandates comes in, and a lot of drivers aren’t going down (to the U.S.),” he said.
“Less drivers are going down so less product is coming back to Canada, which in turn, if there’s less product, less trucks, the price of the trucks goes up.”
Saturday
Canada-wide warrant issued for anti-vax dad who disappeared with daughter
Mark Melnychuk, National Post
The RCMP has issued a Canada-wide warrant for a man who allegedly abducted his seven-year-old daughter in an effort to prevent her from getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
In a press release issued Friday, the Saskatchewan RCMP said Michael Gordon Jackson has been charged with one count of abduction in contravention of custody or parenting order.
The RCMP also revealed that they believe individuals have been helping Jackson evade police. The RCMP reminded the public that such activity could result in criminal charges.
Police said they are seeking information on Jackson’s daughter, Sarah, to whom they also sent a message via the media.
“Sarah: we want you to know that you are not in any trouble,” Chief Supt. Tyler Bates, the officer in charge of the Saskatchewan RCMP South District, said in a press release. “Your mom misses you very much and we have police officers doing what they can so you can see her again soon.”
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Letter of the day
Allowing unvaxxed staff undermines AHS message
On Thursday, I saw a subtle announcement that 500 of the 1,400 unvaccinated AHS employees currently on leave, are temporarily heading back to work after agreeing to weekly testing in order to meet the demands of the fifth Omicron wave.
For almost two years now, Albertans have been asked, pressured, browbeat, almost threatened, to do everything humanly possible to prevent the health-care system from becoming overwhelmed. It’s a key message in the push to vaccinate.
So why is AHS allowing unvaccinated staff back to work, when 100 per cent of AHS refuse to do what they’ve been asking us to do: get vaccinated. How is that fair? Apparently in Alberta, we’re not all in this together; it’s do as I say, not as I do. I hope when this fifth wave subsides, there are 1,400 AHS positions ready to be filled.
S.C Thomas, St. Albert
Letters Welcome
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Friday
Alberta COVID-19 hospitalizations climb to more than 1,190, active cases declining
Anna Junker
Alberta saw an increase of 60 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 on Friday, as active cases continue to decline.
According to the latest provincial statistics, there are currently 1,191 people hospitalized with COVID-19, breaking the record number of hospitalizations for a second day in a row.
Of those hospitalized, 107 are in intensive care units, a decrease of one from Thursday.
In a series of tweets Friday afternoon, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said over the past seven days 58.8 per cent of new non-ICU admissions are due to a COVID-19 infection while 41.2 per cent are cases where infection was not determined to be a cause of admission, or it was not possible to determine.
In the ICU, 70.4 per cent of new admissions were due to COVID and 29.6 per cent were incidental infections, or it was unclear.
There were 3,592 new cases of COVID-19 identified on Friday, after 10,572 PCR tests were completed for a positivity rate of 35.3 per cent. However, Hinshaw has noted in the past that the number of infections in the community is at least 10 times higher.
For the third day in a row, active COVID-19 cases have declined in the province. Currently, there are 61,615 active cases, a decrease of 2,904. Eight more deaths raised the provincial death toll to 3,429.
As of end-of-day Friday, 89.5 per cent of Albertans aged 12 and older have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 85.7 per cent have received two doses. Of the province’s total population, 80 per cent have received one dose and 73.5 per cent have two doses.
Friday
Lockdowns, staff shortages and ‘warning shots:’ inmate describes desperate situation at Edmonton Max during COVID’s fifth wave
Jonny Wakefield
Edmonton’s maximum security prison is dangerously short-staffed and descending into violence, an inmate said in a desperate appeal to a provincial court judge Friday.
Aaron Moore, an inmate at Edmonton Institution, appeared in Drumheller provincial court Friday to be sentenced for stabbing an inmate during a brawl last year at the city’s federal prison.
When given a chance to address the court, Moore detailed for Judge Bruce Fraser how conditions inside Edmonton Institution have worsened since he was transferred there in August.
Appearing by video from a conference room in the lockup, Moore said that addictions programming, educational opportunities and out-of-cell time have all fallen by the wayside as the prison grapples with staffing troubles.
Moore also said he witnessed a Jan. 8 fight in which three inmates were injured, one of whom remains in hospital. Moore claimed a correctional officer fired an “assault-style” rifle during the altercation.
“I witnessed officers dragging an inmate’s non-responsive body,” he said. “I fear for my life here, as do the staff.”
Friday
‘Very nice spring, very nice summer’: Omicron will bring us closer to normal, experts say
Sharon Kirkey
Anna Bershteyn says there are absolutely no guarantees, of course, but if asked to read the tea leaves, she sees “a very nice spring, a very nice summer, where people can let loose,” see others and not worry so much about COVID-19.
It’s just a hope, “but if I had to make a guess, I would say that what Omicron will probably give us is a period of respite,” said Bershteyn, an assistant professor in the department of population health at New York University Grossman School of Medicine. Immunity gained through vaccination, infection or a combination of the two, could move populations closer to controllable levels of COVID, she and other scientists said. The hope is that the virus “sort of vaccinates itself” — that a milder strain gives us immunity to a later, potentially more severe one.
While hospital and ICU numbers are rising nationally, Omicron infections may have peaked and the country could be on a downward slope, federal health officials said Friday.
COVID is here to stay. SARS-CoV-2 will continue to live in the human population, Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer said. While we must prepare for more potential unusual variants, “we do need to lay out a strategy and a plan towards moving back toward something that is nearer normality,” Tam said.
In England, mandatory masking in public spaces and vaccine passports will be dropped beginning next week, while Spain is moving toward treating SARS-CoV-2 much like seasonal flu.
Friday
U.S. to require COVID vaccines for essential workers crossing borders
Reuters
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is announcing Thursday it is requiring that non-U.S. essential workers such as truck drivers and nurses who are crossing land borders be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, effective Saturday.
The Biden administration first announced in October that effective Nov. 8 it would again allow non-essential foreign visitors to travel from Canada and Mexico into the U.S. across land borders if they were vaccinated.
The U.S. land borders with Canada and Mexico had been closed to non-essential travel for 20 months because of COVID-19 concerns.
DHS is announcing it is extending those requirements to essential workers who are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.
Starting Saturday DHS “will require that non-U.S. individuals entering the United States via land ports of entry or ferry terminals along our Northern and Southern borders be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and prepared to show related proof of vaccination,” said DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Friday
Public Health Agency of Canada reportedly involved in ‘error’ on trucker vaccine rules
The Canadian Press
Turmoil and confusion over whether truckers would remain exempt from the vaccine mandate last week stemmed from bureaucrats misinterpreting policy in more than one federal agency — including the one that co-ordinates Canada’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The trucking industry was caught by surprise Jan. 12 when the Canada Border Services Agency sent a statement to media saying that unvaccinated and partially vaccinated truck drivers crossing into Canada from the United States would remain exempt from the vaccine mandate that had long been expected to come into force last weekend.
The federal government reversed itself again the next afternoon with a statement that said the information shared the day before had been sent “in error.” The exemption would still end Jan. 15, meaning truck drivers would need to be fully vaccinated if they wanted to avoid a two-week quarantine and pre-arrival molecular test for COVID-19 before crossing into Canada.
The government provided no more explanation for the botched messaging, which one trucking industry association said had prompted some unvaccinated big-riggers to be dispatched across the border during the period of time when everyone thought Ottawa had backed down.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government had been consistent that the exemption would end this month.
“There was a miscommunication from an official last week that contradicted that, that was quickly corrected,” he said.
The Canadian Press has learned the miscommunication went beyond one official and even beyond one department, stemming from confusion among officials over whether a key government order-in-council on COVID-19 mandates covered truckers or not. An order-in-council lays out decisions made by cabinet, such as regulations or appointments.
Friday
Quebec reports 59 new COVID deaths, hospitalizations fall for second consecutive day
The Canadian Press
Quebec is reporting 59 more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus and a drop of 60 COVID-19-related hospitalizations.
It’s the second consecutive day hospitalizations have decreased in the province.
Health officials say 3,351 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, after 346 patients were admitted in the past 24 hours and 406 were discharged. They said 265 patients are in intensive care, a drop of 20.
Premier Francois Legault said Thursday that COVID-19 hospitalizations in the province may have peaked but the situation is still too dangerous to lift public health restrictions.
Officials are reporting 5,995 new cases today, although they have warned that the case count isn’t representative of the situation because PCR testing is reserved for certain high-risk groups.
They said 108,305 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered in the province on Thursday.
Friday
COVID-19: Ontario reports 4,114 in hospital, 590 in ICUs; 62 new deaths
The Canadian Press
Ontario is reporting 4,114 people in hospital with COVID-19 and 590 people in intensive care units.
That’s up from 4,061 hospitalizations reported the previous day and a slightly lower number of people in ICU, down from 594.
The province also reports another 62 deaths related to COVID-19.
Ontario is reporting 7,165 new cases of COVID-19, though Public Health Ontario has said the number is likely higher because of a current policy restricting who can access tests.
More than half of the long-term care homes in the province have active COVID-19 outbreaks.
About 88 per cent of Ontarians aged five and older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 83 per cent have received two.
Friday
WHO recommends reduced dose Pfizer COVID vaccine for under 12s
Reuters
The World Health Organization on Friday recommended extending the use of a reduced dosage of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to children aged 5 to 11 years old.
The recommendation comes after the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on immunization held a meeting on Wednesday to evaluate the vaccine. It is currently recommended for use in people aged 12 years and above.
The recommended dosage for the younger population is 10 micrograms instead of 30 micrograms offered to those 12 years and older.
“This age group (5-11) is in the lowest priority use group for vaccination except, for children who have co-morbidities,” SAGE chairman Alejandro Cravioto said at a briefing.
Pfizer/BioNTech shots have already been authorized for use in the age group in several countries including the United States, Canada, Israel, and the European Union.
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