The province is projecting to have ample amount of hospital beds for people who may get COVID-19.
Additional modelling was released on Wednesday, a day after Premier Jason Kenney highlighted probable and elevated scenarios for the virus.
Alberta Health Services is planning to have 1,081 ICU beds available for COVID-19 cases by the end of April.
In the probable scenario, the province is expecting to use around 232 beds, while that increases to 392 in the elevated scenario.
As for acute care beds, AHS is expected to have 2,250 beds available which is much higher than the projected 818 needed in the probable scenario and 1,570 in the elevated scenario.
AHS is undertaking additional measures to free up these beds. This includes relocating hospital residents, which the Northern Lights Regional Health Centre has done, and turning certain operating and recovery rooms into temporary ICU units.
“We have significant redundancy of available beds for our projected model,” said Kenney.
The province is also expecting to have 761 ventilators by the end of the month. Around 310 will be dedicated to COVID-19 virus.
Personal protective equipment such as N95 masks, gloves, and face shields are also in good supply.
The modelling suggests Alberta shouldn’t have any issues moving towards the start of June. Afterwards, we may see the supplies get limited, however, the province believes we might see a drop in cases.
Kenney suggests they may help out other provinces who are struggling to find items.
“We would only do so if we are absolutely certain about our ability to maintain ventilators and supplies for everybody who becomes sick here in Alberta, but I think we’re all in this together as Canadians.”
These numbers aren’t 100 per cent guaranteed.
“If Albertans stop following public health restrictions and guidelines, we can expect to experience a higher impact than the data currently suggests,” added Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health.
“If Albertans strictly follow all public guidelines, we collectively can further reduce the impact from what the modelling is currently predicting.”
