Premier Jason Kenney and Dr. Deena Hinshaw to deliver COVID-19 update
CBC
Premier Jason Kenney and Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, will update Albertans today on COVID-19 and continuing efforts to contain the spread of the Omicron variant.
Kenney and Hinshaw will speak today at 3:30 p.m. MT. Watch the news conference here.
The province reported 23 new deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the total to 3,505 since the start of the pandemic.
There were 1,418 people in hospital with COVID-19 Wednesday — a pandemic high for the fifth day in a row.
Of the people in hospital, 109 patients were being treated in intensive care units.
Provincially, ICU capacity, including additional surge beds, is at 80 per cent. Without the use of additional surge spaces, provincial ICU capacity would be at 112 per cent.
The positivity rate Wednesday was about 37.5 per cent, slightly higher than the seven-day average of 36.85 per cent.
The number of known active cases is now 47,743, although that figure only includes lab-confirmed cases and is considered a fraction of the real number of infections in Alberta.
Alberta Health confirmed Wednesday that approximately three cases of the Omicron subvariant BA.2 have been detected in the province through ongoing genetic surveillance, which includes genome sequencing.
P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch is looking for 50 substitute bus drivers, and it'll be recruiting at three job fairs on Saturday, June 8. The job fairs are located at the Atlantic Superstore in Montague, Royalty Crossing in Charlottetown, and the bus parking lot of Three Oaks Senior High in Summerside. All three run from 9 a.m. until noon. Dave Gillis, the director of transportation and risk management for the Public Schools Branch, said the number of substitute drivers they're hiring isn't unusual. "We are always looking for more. Our drivers tend to have an older demographic," he said.