NEWS PHOTO GILLIAN SLADE - None of the five cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat have required hospitalization and there are also no cases in seniors long-term-care residences. Outside the entrance to Medicine Hat Regional Hospital an orange temporary structure is used for COVID assessment before people enter the building.
gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade
None of the local cases of COVID-19 have needed hospitalization, says Alberta Health Services.
More good news, there are still no cases in any local continuing care facilities, AHS has confirmed.
Since March 26, AHS’s South zone has had 12 cases of COVID-19, which is by far the lowest of all zones. As of April 1, The North zone had 51 cases, Central zone 57, Edmonton 219 and Calgary 527. The South zone also has the smallest population of all the zones: South zone 306,577 population, North zone 482,635, Central 479,435, Edmonton 1,404,498 and Calgary 1,669,272.
The South zone and the Central zone are the only zones, (effective April 1) without any recorded COVID-19 deaths. The north zone has had two, Edmonton three, and Calgary six.
The total number of COVID-19 tests in Alberta, effective April 1, was 53,141. Of that number 40 per cent have been done in the Calgary zone, 35 per cent in Edmonton, 10 per cent Central, nine per cent North zone, five per cent South zone and three per cent are not attributed to a specific zone yet.
The News was not able to get specifics on the number of tests done in Medicine Hat alone.
“…We aren’t breaking them down for specific municipalities,” said Tom McMillan spokesperson for Alberta Health. “I can say that about 22 per cent of tests in the province have been done on health care workers to date. I don’t have a zone-specific number.”
AHS says it is they who contact the individuals who are believed to have been exposed to COVID-19. They are asked to self-isolate and they are tested for COVID-19
“This is called contact tracing, and is done in response to each case of COVID-19 we confirm by lab testing … Only those individuals contacted directly by AHS are considered exposed to any case. If you are not contacted directly by AHS, you are not considered exposed,” said a spokesperson for AHS.
A number of recent deaths from COVID-19 have been residents of continuing care facilities in Calgary and Edmonton.
AHS is working with continuing care, long-term-care and seniors residences to ensure they not only rapidly identify any potential case of COVID-19 and put measures in place to reduce spread, but also do their best to prevent COVID-19 from coming into these facilities in the first place.
AHS now has “Rapid Response Teams” available for all continuing care residences. At the first sign of illness, the teams are available to ensure all necessary measures are in place, and support the operator in implementing any other recommended infection prevention and control measures.
