Alberta surpasses 5,000 deaths from COVID-19

Alberta has taken a grim step as it has now recorded more than 5,000 COVID-19 related deaths.

Provincial data as of Monday shows 5,011 deaths related to the disease, an increase of 28 from last week’s update. Alberta has reported the third highest number of COVID deaths in Canada, behind Quebec (16,998 deaths) and Ontario (14,690 deaths).

The first reported COVID-19 death in the province occurred on March 18, 2020.

According to the latest update for the October 18-24 reporting period, 1,118 people were hospitalized with COVID, an increase of 48 from the previous update. Hospitalizations include 28 patients in intensive care, a decrease of five from the last update.

Health officials detected 1,461 new cases of COVID-19 in the past week with a positivity rate of around 18.36%, about the same as the previous seven-day average of 18.45 %.

However, there are more viruses circulating in the community as provincial data excludes positive rapid test results and most Albertans are not eligible to receive a PCR test.

By late Monday, 77.8% of Albertans had received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine; 82.2% of Albertans have received at least one dose of vaccine.

Of the total population, 39.9% received three doses.