According to the most recent weekly data released by the provincial government, 10 Albertans have died from COVID, 3 of whom were children.
These are the first pediatric COVID deaths reported in the current respiratory virus season.
The death toll, among all ages, for the current season now stands at 430.
Two of the children who died of COVID were between the ages of one and four years old, according to a statement from Alberta Health.
The third child, a nine-year-old, died from a COVID-flu co-infection.
“The reported deaths are all old deaths believed to have occurred between October and December 2023,” Alberta Health spokeswoman Charity Wallace said in an email.
Wallace said Alberta Health would reveal where in the province the pediatric deaths occurred, “due to privacy concerns. “
The latest statement also shows that 103 more people have been hospitalized with COVID, totaling 11 admitted to intensive care units (ICUs).
In total, this season there have been 3,518 hospitalizations and 216 ICU admissions.
In general, Alberta Health noted respiratory illnesses appear to be on a downward trajectory.
“Cases of influenza and RSV have been declining in the recent weeks,” Wallace said in an email last week. “Although COVID-19 saw a slight increase following the holiday season, it has been steadily declining since mid-November. Hospitalizations are following a similar, delayed trajectory downward for influenza and COVID-19.
Admissions come with patients with “incidental” cases of COVID-19 admitted to a hospital/intensive care unit for other reasons.
Alberta Health says deaths come with those “resulting from clinically compatible illness in a laboratory-confirmed case of COVID-19, unless the transparent cause of death (e. g. , trauma, poisoning, drug overdose, etc. ) is known. “
These numbers represent the difference between hospitalizations and deaths in the province’s most recent weekly report compared to the report from the week before, for the 2023-24 respiratory virus tracking season.
The season runs from August 27, 2023 to August 24, 2024.
Older people tend to be the most vulnerable to severe outcomes from COVID, but younger people can be affected, too.
The table below the main points shows the total number of hospitalizations, intensive care admissions, and deaths during the existing respiratory virus season, by age group.
It will also locate the population-adjusted rate (per 100,000 people) by age group.
This data all comes from the provincial government’s respiratory virus dashboard, which is updated weekly.
However, there are reporting delays, which means that not all deaths and hospitalizations that occurred during the last era of weekly reporting are included.
Each weekly report includes serious events that occurred in the past few weeks and have just been added to the data.
To learn more about why, check out this story:
Data Journalist / Senior Reporter
Robson Fletcher’s work for CBC Calgary focuses on data, analysis and investigative journalism. He joined CBC in 2015 after spending the previous decade working as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Alberta, British Columbia and Manitoba.
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