Five years later, COVID-19 continues to leave its mark on Albertans

Jennifer Lee · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 05, 2025 7:00 AM EST | Last Updated: March 5

Five years aft the state identified its archetypal COVID-19 case, Albertans are being urged not to suffer show of those inactive struggling with its devastating impacts.

In a infinitesimal fewer Albertans volition forget, Dr. Deena Hinshaw — Alberta's past main aesculapian serviceman of wellness — took to the podium on March 5, 2020, to denote that a pistillate successful her 50s had tested affirmative aft returning from a cruise. 

It was the province's archetypal presumptive COVID-19 case.

Since then, 6,691 Albertans person died owed to the illness. And portion deaths and hospitalizations person dropped significantly, COVID-19 continues to termination hundreds of Albertans each year.

"This is not a illness that has travel and gone. It's unluckily thing that's near its people connected Alberta," said Craig Jenne, prof successful the section of microbiology, immunology and infectious diseases astatine the University of Calgary. 

"The pandemic has ended but, unfortunately, the endemic signifier has present begun. And this is simply a microorganism that we're going to person to woody with fundamentally each twelvemonth moving forward."

And portion galore expected SARS-CoV-2 would yet go a seasonal virus, akin to influenza, that hasn't genuinely happened.

"It's not similar the flu," said Sarah Otto, a prof astatine the University of British Columbia who specializes successful mathematical modelling.

"It's truthful transmissible and truthful casual to get that radical are getting it … aggregate times a year."

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Otto, an evolutionary biologist, is 1 of respective Canadian scientists tracking COVID-19 variants.

"We're not seeing it spell distant successful the summer. It goes done these small undulations arsenic caller variants germinate and we spot a small uptick. But past people's immunity builds and it goes down again. And that's happening twelvemonth aft year."

Prior to the pandemic, the starring origin of decease owed to infectious diseases successful Canada was influenza, according to Jenne.

That has changed.

"Last twelvemonth alone, COVID killed much than 4 times arsenic galore Albertans arsenic flu," said Jenne, who is besides the lawman manager of the Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases.

"[It] continues to beryllium a important menace to radical that person underlying wellness conditions, older and — to a definite extent — younger Albertans."

Long COVID continues

And the pandemic has near different mark: agelong COVID.

Estimates astir its prevalence vary, but according to a national survey involving Statistics Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada, 19 per cent of Canadians infected with SARS-CoV-2 reported experiencing semipermanent symptoms (for 3 oregon much months) successful 2023.

"As of June 2023, astir 100,000 Canadian adults person been incapable to instrumentality to enactment oregon schoolhouse due to the fact that of their symptoms," the study said.

The astir communal symptoms reported are fatigue, encephalon fog and shortness of breath.

But different problems tin hap arsenic well, according to doctors, including uncontrolled and accelerated increases successful bosom rate, known arsenic tachycardia. It tin beryllium triggered by activities arsenic elemental arsenic lasting up and walking into different room.

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Prior to the pandemic, Dr. Satish Raj, a Calgary-based cardiologist, was already treating patients with akin problems after viral infections. The information is known arsenic POTS.

"What was antithetic astir COVID wasn't that this benignant of happening had ne'er happened before, but that it had ne'er happened earlier connected the scale, societally, arsenic it happened with COVID," said Raj, a University of Calgary professor and aesculapian manager of the Calgary autonomic probe and absorption clinic.

He estimates 5 to 10 per cent of Albertans person ongoing symptoms aft a COVID infection, and up to 2 per cent are truthful debilitated they can't spell to enactment oregon school.

His waitlist has grown since COVID-19 deed and is present adjacent to 2 years.

"In our tendency to determination connected and get past it, I deliberation we're forgetting immoderate of the radical who person been wounded by it," said Raj.

"We're not needfully showing a committedness to providing the resources to assistance them to proceed to beryllium portion of society."

Last year, Alberta Health Services shuttered its agelong COVID outpatient program, which provided multi-disciplinary specialized care.

Care is little co-ordinated now, said Raj.

"I deliberation there's a large domino effect by getting escaped of those clinics — not conscionable for the patients for whom they're caring — but arsenic an accusation assets for doc and providers."

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In a statement, Alberta Health Services said astir radical tin manage symptoms astatine home and radical should commencement by contacting their superior attraction supplier oregon Health Link for support.

Meanwhile, with testing nary longer easy accessible to the public, confirming a diagnosis of agelong COVID is progressively difficult, according to Dr. Grace Lam, a University of Alberta respirologist.

"It makes it truly rather challenging to pin down however galore Albertans are inactive suffering with this oregon are recently processing this astatine this point."

Lam, who besides treats agelong COVID patients, worries astir radical being infected aggregate times.

"With repeated infections, your hazard of agelong COVID does increase," she said.

But determination is hope, according to Lam, who said objective trials are exploring attraction options.

Meanwhile, reflecting connected the past 5 years, Jenne pointed to what helium sees arsenic cardinal achievements, including planetary surveillance and co-operation that led to the accelerated improvement and deployment of vaccines.

"We were capable to dramatically interaction the fig of lives lost," helium said.

"There's a batch of lessons successful determination arsenic we determination guardant knowing that, unfortunately, it's lone a substance of clip earlier different microorganism shows up and creates a important nationalist wellness threat."