More than 800 Albertans are now hospitalized with COVID-19 and 4,740 new cases have been identified since Friday | The Canadian News

There are now more than 800 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Alberta.

Alberta health data released Monday afternoon shows that there are 803 people being treated for the illness at the hospital. That’s a jump from 686 COVID-19 patients in the hospital through Friday afternoon.

Of those in the hospital, 198 are in intensive care, a jump from 169 COVID-19 patients in intensive care on Friday.

“AHS continues to do everything possible to ensure that we have sufficient ICU capacity to meet patient demand, including opening additional spaces and redeploying staff,” Alberta Health Services said in a statement Monday.

AHS said there are 286 ICU beds currently open in Alberta, including an additional 113 spaces as of 11 a.m. Monday. In the last seven days, the health authority said it has opened 37 additional emergency spaces in the ICU.

At the provincial level, ICU capacity, including additional emergency beds, was 90 percent on Monday.

“Without the additional emergency spaces, the capacity of the provincial ICU would be 148%. The number of patients in the ICU has increased by 19 percent in the last seven days, “said AHS.

Earlier Monday, AHS announced once again that more elective surgeries and outpatient procedures were being rescheduled to free up space in the hospital.

The ICU’s growing capacity due to COVID-19 comes as 4,740 new cases of the disease were identified in Alberta over the past three days.

The province said 1,659 cases were identified on Friday, 1,497 cases were identified on Saturday and 1,584 new cases were reported on Sunday.

Alberta also reported 18 additional deaths from COVID-19 since Friday, bringing the death toll in the province to 2,462.

There are currently 18,395 active cases in Alberta. Of these, 5,357 are in the Edmonton area, 5,226 are in the Calgary area, 3,199 are in the north area, 2,751 are in the central area, 1,802 are in the south area and 60 are in an unknown area.

As of Sunday afternoon, 79.2 percent of Albertans age 12 and older had received a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 71.2 percent were fully vaccinated.

Since the pandemic began in the spring of 2020, 270,777 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been identified in Alberta. Of these, 249,920 people have recovered.

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