Everything you need to know about COVID-19 in Alberta on Wednesday, Feb. 10

The latest:

• About 380,000 public and private-sector workers will receiveone-time payments of $1,200 for putting themselves at risk on the job during the COVID-19 pandemic, the UCP announced on Wednesday.
• The City of Calgary is reopening bookings at some municipal arenas and pools that can be booked for one-on-one training or for lessons or practices for minor teams (up to 10 people), but not for games or group exercise, the city said.
• Alberta reported339 daily newcases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, compared with 195 new casesreported Tuesday.
• There were 5,706active cases, inching down from 5,831 the previous day, the lowest seen in months after it surged to a peak ofmore than 21,000 on Dec. 13 around the time that tighter public health restrictions were imposed by the UCP government.
• The testingpositivity rate is 3.17 per cent, down from 3.2 per centthe previous day.
• Another sixpeople have died,bringing the total number of deaths in the province to1,728.
• The provincewide R-value, which refers to the average number of people infected by each person with COVID-19, was 0.87, an increase from 0.83 the previous week.
• The province has now confirmed 120 cases of people infected withthe coronavirus variants of concern, 113 of the strain first identified in the U.K. and seven of the strain first identified in South Africa. The province did not say how many people with those variant cases have been hospitalized. The cases make upabout 0.25 per cent of cases identified since mid-December.
• There were421people in hospital as of Wednesday, including 77in intensive care.
• The first round of eased COVID-19 restrictions in the past week includeslimited school and minor sports training, allowing restaurants, cafs and pubs to reopen for dine-in services, and permitting fitness training,but only for one-on-one workouts individual workouts without a trainer are not permitted.
• The province has said further easings of restrictions wouldn't begin until hospitalizations dropped below 450 and not for at least three weeks after the first stage of reopening.
• A decision onStep2is expected to be made onFeb. 28.

• Two members of Premier Jason Kenney's United Conservative Party caucus are challenging the province's COVID-19 economic restrictions and have joined a national coalition pushing against public health restrictions. Drew Barnes,MLA for Cypress-Medicine Hat, and Angela Pitt, MLA for Airdrie-East,the deputy speaker of the house and chair of committees, say Albertans have not been given adequate evidence to justify the rules, and real hardship and harm is resulting.
• Widespread assumptions that suicide rates would increase during the pandemic are not supported by the growing amount of evidence coming out of Canadian provinces and other jurisdictions around the world, say experts who study the topic.

• As of Wednesday, 129,452 first doses of the vaccine had been administered. There are now 36,999Albertans who are now fully immunized after receiving both doses.

See the detailed regional breakdown:

Here is the detailed regional breakdown of active cases as of Wednesday.

• Calgary zone: 2,269, down from 2,335 reported on Tuesday (46,235 recovered).
• Edmonton zone: 1,705, down from 1,748 (49,778 recovered).
• North zone: 722, down from 758 (9,786 recovered).
• South zone: 326, up from 325 (5,677 recovered).
• Central zone: 674, upfrom 656 (8,554 recovered).
• Unknown: 10, up from 9 (106 recovered).

Find out which neighbourhoods or communities have the most cases, how hard people of different ages have been hit, the ages of people in hospital, how Alberta compares to other provinces and more in: Here are the latest COVID-19 statistics for Alberta and what they mean

Here are the latest Alberta COVID-19 stories:

Alberta, federal governments giving $1,200 pandemic danger pay to front-line workers

About 380,000 public and private-sector workers will receiveone-time payments of $1,200 for putting themselves at risk on the job during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Health-care and social-services workers and education support workers are among the public-sector employees who will receive the critical worker benefit,Premier Jason Kenney and Labour and Immigration Minister Jason Copping announced Wednesday afternoon.

Employees of grocery stores, warehouses, food production, truck drivers and other private-sector workers who earn less than $25 an hour will also be eligible for the bonus pay. Their employers must apply to the government for them to receive the payments.

The province has agreed to commit $118 million to the program, matching $346 million committed by the federal government last year.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announcedlastMay that the provinces had agreed to collectively pitch in $1 billion to bolster $3 billion in federal funds that wouldboost the pay of essential workers.

While other provinces accessed all or half of the matching federal funds by September, Alberta was the sole exception, having accessed just $47 million of its $347-million allocation.

For more, see:Alberta, federal governments giving $1,200 pandemic danger pay to front-line workers

Calgary reopens limited bookings for some rinks and pools

Now that Alberta has eased some public health restrictions, the City of Calgary is reopening bookings at some municipal arenas and pools.

The city saidsix sheets of ice at three arenas will reopen Thursday:

• Max Bell Centre (Ken Bracko and Arena 2) 1001 Barlow Tr.S.E.
• Father David Bauer and Norma Bush arenas 2424 University Dr.N.W.
• Southland Leisure Centre (Ed Whalen and Joe Kryzcka arenas) 2000 Southland Dr.S.W.

And on Monday, Feb. 22, the city will reopen four pools:

• Bob Bahan Aquatic andFitness Centre 4812 14th Ave.S.E.
• Canyon Meadows Aquatic andFitness Centre 89 Canova Rd.S.W.
• Killarney Aquatic and Recreation Centre 1919 29th St.S.W.
• Sir Winston Churchill Aquatic andRecreation Centre 1520 Northmount Dr.N.W.

The facilities can be booked for one-on-one training or for lessons or practices for minor teams (up to 10 people), but not for games or group exercise, the city said.

Public skating and swimming are not yet allowed under public health restrictions.

For more, see:Calgary reopens limited bookings for some rinks and pools

2 UCP MLAsjoin coalition fighting public health restrictions

Two members of Premier Jason Kenney's caucus are challenging the province's COVID-19 economic restrictions and have joined a national coalition pushing against public health restrictions.

Drew Barnes, the United Conservative legislature member for Cypress-Medicine Hat, and Angela Pitt, the deputy speaker of the house and chair of committees, say Albertans have not been given adequate evidence to justify the rules and real hardship and harm is resulting.

"Down here in Medicine Hat our mental health crisis is as big as our COVID crisis," said Barnes in an interview Tuesday.

"Let's give people more freedoms."

He said the province should take a more regional approach to restrictions, as was done for a while last year.

There are few infections in his region, he said, and he'd like to see businesses allowed to open up more, with additional testing and with health restrictions to keep COVID-19 in check.

• For more, see:Two of Premier Kenney's caucus members join coalition fighting public health restrictions

6 coronavirus variant cases identified at 5 Alberta schools all in Calgary

As cases of the significantly more contagious coronavirus variants begin to spread in Alberta, some parents and advocates are calling for greater transparency about which schools are seeing cases.

There are now six people who have attended five schools while infectious with avariantin the province all in Calgary.

Of the five Calgary schools, CBCNewshas confirmed three:single cases have been identified at Henry Wise Wood High School and St. Gregory School, and two cases at St. Francis High School.

With COVID-19 variants, questions of whether guidelines go far enough

4 years ago

Duration 2:02

The spread of the highly transmissible COVID-19 variant first found in the U.K. has some Canadian doctors wondering if our current distancing recommendations are enough.

Alberta Health Servicessaid its dedicated variant case team is made up of experienced case investigators who work quickly to identify each case's contacts.

Once a variant case is identified, AHS only notifies parents of that student and any of the students' close contacts not all parents at a school.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, said it's important to keep the numbers in context and to understand what they indicate about the spread of the virus.

"For context, the first variant case in Alberta was identified retrospectively in a sample originally taken on Dec. 15 from a returning traveller," she said. "From that day until now, there have been 104 positive variant cases identified among all the samples that have been taken."

During that same time, more than 43,000 cases of COVID-19 have been detected in the province, which means variant cases made up one-quarter of one per cent of all the cases identified since Dec. 15.

• For more, see:6 coronavirus variant cases identified at 5 Alberta schools all in Calgary

A rare glimpse inside Calgary's COVID-19 isolation hotel, as travellers share concerns

During his 14-day mandatory stay in Calgary's COVID-19 isolation hotel, Angelo Vanegas says he couldn't get food for up to 15 hours at a time overnight, was penned up in a small room and had to "beg" to get medical treatment for an infection. He says he felt ignored, disrespected and mistreated.

Another traveller, Mitch Beaulieu, said it seemed to him like a sci-fi thriller. Police and security officers escorted him from Calgary's airport to a van with blacked-out windows and took him to a hotel with hallways lined with plastic. There, he was greeted by people wearing hazmat suits, gloves and face masks.

The two men, now back home, are among the few willing to speak publicly about their mandatory stays in Calgary's isolation hotel.

It's one of 11 sites in nine cities designated by Canada's chief public health officer to reduce the risk of travel-related spread of COVID-19. They're meant to house travellers returning to Canada who don't have a valid COVID-19 test result or quarantine plan.

The governmenthas consistently advised againstnon-essential travel abroad, and detailed rules regarding which COVID-19 tests are accepted and how to comply with mandatory isolation requirements arereadily available online.

• For more, see:A rare glimpse inside Calgary's COVID-19 isolation hotel, as travellers share concerns

Many assumed suicides would spike in 2020. So far, the data tells a different story

Widespread assumptions that suicide rates would increase during the pandemic are not supported by the growing amount of evidence coming out of Canadian provinces and other jurisdictions around the world, say experts who study the topic.

"It's a good example of how sometimes the story we tell ourselves, we look for reasons to support it, and we don't always use the data,"said Tyler Black, a psychiatrist and suicidologist with the University of British Columbia.

"When we look back at the numbers, it just doesn't pan out the way we thought."

Numerous public figures have claimed alink between public-health restrictions and increased suicide rates, without evidence to back it up. Some merely speculated about it early on in the pandemic, while others have made stronger claims more recently.

Ontario MPPRoman Baber waskicked out of the Progressive Conservative caucusin January after sendingan open letter asserting public-health restrictions were "causing an avalanche of suicides," among other claims.

But Blackpointed to recently released dataout of Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan that suggestsuicide rates actually declined in 2020. He also notedcoroners in Quebecand the chief medical examiner inNewfoundland and Labradorhave recently said there were no increases in suicide in those provinces last year.

• For more, see:Many assumed suicides would spike in 2020. So far, the data tells a different story

Friends of Calgary man who died from COVID-19 in Pakistan warn of travel risks

Naveed Asghar was known for his smile, his humble nature and his willingness to offer a helping hand to anyone who needed it.

The 62-year-old Calgary Transit driver was a familiar face to many and was well known in Calgary's Pakistani community.

He passed away in hospital in Pakistan on Feb. 7 after contracting COVID-19 while on a trip home to visit his mother.

"He was very close to me," said friend Syed Haider. "He was just like an elder brother to me."

Haider says he hopes what happened to his friend might make others think twice before travelling overseas.

"I have a request for the whole community in Calgary: please don't travel if it's not mandatory. It's very risky," he said.

"Naveed was so healthy when he left and he died in just two or three weeks. So please don't travel if it's not required. Stay home."

The community has been quick to rally around Asghar's family. He leaves behind a wife and children: two girls, aged 13 and 11, and two boys, aged nine and six.

A GoFundMe page has raisednearly $35,000 to help.

• For more, see:Friends of Calgary man who died from COVID-19 in Pakistan warn of travel risks

Doctors who contracted COVID-19 at a bonspiel dug into how they got it. Here's what they found

A new study of one of Alberta's first COVID-19 superspreader events a bonspiellast March attended by doctors from across Western Canada suggests that most of the transmission occurred off the ice as curlers gathered to socialize and dine at buffet and banquet tables.

On March 11, 2020, the same day COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, medical professionals gathered at Edmonton's Granite Club to hit the ice for four days of competition.

The virus moved unseen from curler to curler, eventually infecting at least 40 of the 73 attendees. Many brought the virus home, infecting their families, their work colleagues and, in some cases, even exposing their patients to the virus.

The tournament, the 63rd Annual Western Canadian Medical Bonspiel, became linked to a cluster of cases across the country and raised questions about the efficacy of public health restrictions adopted during the early days of the pandemic.

Some of the doctors who attended have now published research on themselves in an attempt to better understand how the virus proliferated so quickly.

The peer-reviewed report was published Monday inCMAJ Open,an online open-access medical journal.

For more, see:Doctors who contracted COVID-19 at a bonspiel dug into how they got it. Here's what they found

• For the latest on what's happening in the rest of Canada and around the world, seehere.