PETERS – Alberta is a case study on consequences of dropping restrictions

ALBERTANS WHO ARE NOT GASPING FOR BREATH in a hospital ICU are likely gasping in shock and horror at what is happening in their province right now.

Consider for a moment, if you will, their plight.

Alberta is in the midst of a real, honest-to-goodness COVID-19 emergency. There is no denying this.

Don’t look at case counts, don’t look at vaccination rates, just look at intensive care admissions for a moment.

As of Thursday, Alberta was seeing 18-to-20 admissions to ICU due to COVID-19 every day and there were 310 ICU beds left in the entire province, including surge beds that have been opened up as a contingency.

Three-quarters of all ICU patients in Alberta have COVID-19. If admissions continue at this rate — and remember, ICU admission spikes lag behind case count spikes — there will be no more ICU space at all in two weeks. Not a single bed.

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James Peters is the radio anchor at CFJC, coming to Kamloops in 2006. He anchors the afternoon news on B-100 and 98.3 CIFM, and contributes weekly editorials to the CFJC Evening News. He tweets regularly @Jamloops.