Alberta's health minister says COVID-19 case growth 'to be expected'
Thursday was another day of COVID-19 case increases in Alberta, but Health Minister Tyler Shandro says there's no reason to panic as the province heads into triple digits once again.
Alberta announced 106 new cases Thursday. 38 of those were in the Calgary zone, where there's been an alarming 81 per cent increase in the seven day average of new cases.
Much of that is being driven by those in the 20 to 40-year-old age group.
"That's to be expected throughout the summer," Shandro said. "The numbers are going to go up and they will go down. Our hospitalizations, those lagging metrics, are still trending in the right direction.
"The message is still that vaccines work. Vaccines are safe and effective and they are our way of getting numbers down."
UNVACCINATED INDIVIDUALS VULNERABLE
Ninety-six per cent of Alberta's cases in 2021 have been in unvaccinated individuals or in those still within a two-week window of their first dose.
"We still have more than a million Albertans who don't have a single vaccine in their arm," emergency room physician Joe Vipond told CTV News. "In particular, anybody less than 12 years old is not able to get a vaccine, so we still need to protect those people who cannot be vaccinated and those who will not be vaccinated."
Vipond called the case growth "alarming."
Dr. Joe Vipond
"We have had five days of increasingly increasing growth," he said. "That's not a comfortable stat."
The province is hoping its latest initiative to make vaccines as accessible as possible will make a dent in Alberta's relatively low immunization rates.
A new mobile clinic -- one of only two in the country -- will bring first and second doses to rural communities where uptake is low.
That will include some hard to reach populations and remote camps across the province.
The clinic will start operating next week.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Health Canada to change sperm donor screening rules for men who have sex with men
Health Canada will change its longstanding policy restricting gay and bisexual men from donating to sperm banks in Canada, CTV News has learned. The federal health agency has adopted a revised directive removing the ban on gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, effective May 8.
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer denied bail after being charged with killing Canadian couple
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
LeBlanc says he plans to run in next election, under Trudeau's leadership
Cabinet minister Dominic LeBlanc says he plans to run in the next election as a candidate under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's leadership, amid questions about his rumoured interest in succeeding his longtime friend for the top job.
Grandparent scam suspects had ties to Italian organized crime, police allege
A group of suspects that allegedly defrauded seniors across Ontario and other parts of Canada using a so-called emergency grandparent scam appear to have ties to 'Italian traditional organized crime,' according to an investigator involved in the OPP-led probe.
Sports columnist apologizes for 'oafish' comments directed at Caitlin Clark. The controversy isn’t over
A male columnist has apologized for a cringeworthy moment during former University of Iowa superstar and college basketball’s highest scorer Caitlin Clark’s first news conference as an Indiana Fever player.
Trend Line Anger, pessimism towards federal government reach six-year high: Nanos survey
Most Canadians in March reported feeling angry or pessimistic towards the federal government than at any point in the last six years, according to a survey by Nanos Research.
B.C.'s short-term rental regulations include $10K daily penalties for Airbnb, other platforms
Short-term rental platforms that violate B.C.'s pending regulations can face administrative penalties of up to $10,000 per day, officials announced Thursday.
Closing arguments heard in trial for Sask. dad accused of abducting daughter
Closing arguments were heard Thursday morning in the case of Michael Gordon Jackson, the Saskatchewan man accused of abducting his daughter in 2021 to keep her from getting a COVID-19 vaccine.
Cat found on Toronto Pearson airport runway 3 days after going missing
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.