Alberta sets new pandemic high — 1,191 patients in hospital with COVID-19

For the second day in a row, there are more people in hospital with COVID-19 in Alberta than ever before.

As of Friday's update, there are 1,191 people in hospital, including 107 patients in intensive care.

That's up from Thursday, when 1,131 were in hospital, though the number of ICU patients dropped by one. Compared to the peak of the fourth wave, there are far fewer people in ICU with COVID.

Due to the fast spread of the Omicron variant, many patients are not primarily in hospital with a COVID-19 diagnosis.

Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw posted information on Twitter Friday about recent patterns in hospital admissions.

Of all COVID-19 non-ICU admissions in the last seven days, about 58.8 per cent were primarily due to COVID, while 41.2 per cent were patients whose infections were not determined to be a cause of admission, or where it wasn't possible to determine.

About 70.4 per cent of new admissions to intensive care units were due to COVID-19 primarily, Hinshaw said. 

Health Minister Jason Copping noted at Thursday's update that COVID-positive patients who are not in hospital primarily for treatment of the disease still require extra care.

Alberta Health reported another eight deaths related to COVID-19, bringing the pandemic total 3,429. 

The province reported 3,592 new lab-confirmed cases of the illness on Friday, detected through 10,572 PCR tests with a positivity rate around 35.3 per cent.

Alberta Health is reporting about 61,615 known active cases, though the true number of cases is believed to be 10 times higher since the province is limiting PCR testing. 

As of Friday's update about 80 per cent of the province's population has had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 73.5 per cent have had two doses. So far, 1,348,378 third dose shots have been administered in the province.