Article content continued
Tuesday
Braid: Vaccine shortage is already hampering inoculation drive
Columnist Don Braid writes:
Our leaders overhyped COVID-19 vaccines in December (coming soon, salvation!), and now have to shrink their predictions to match the real world.
The trumpeting was perhaps understandable. Albertans desperately needed good news. The creation of COVID-19 vaccines, with first doses arriving even sooner than expected, qualified as ecstatic news.
But now there are shortages. Premier Jason Kenney complains that Alberta’s shipments from the federal government fall far short of the capacity to vaccinate. Several other provinces echo his plea.
Tuesday
Alberta sets new daily high of COVID-19 deaths as 38 more fatalities recorded
Alberta set another record high for deaths related to COVID-19 reported in a single day, as 38 more people have lost their lives after battling the virus.
Chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw announced that grim mark on Tuesday, bringing Alberta’s fatality toll due to COVID-19 to 1,345 deaths recorded since March 2020. The previous daily high of 31 deaths was recorded just three days earlier.
Tuesday
652 new cases, record 38 deaths
Alberta’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw provide an update on the COVID-19 pandemic.
- 652 new cases on 9,336 tests; 6.8% positivity rate
- 819 in hospital; 132 in ICUs
- 38 additional deaths; 1,345 total
- 13,220 active cases; 98,178 recovered
- One school on alert with single case
- Only a single case of the South African variant strain of COVID-19; five cases of the U.K. variant. All of the cases were in people who travelled, no evidence of community spread
- Hinshaw said they’ve been testing about 150 samples every week to do a full genetic analysis to detect “any emerging trends including the variants but not limited to them”