TORONTO – Canada has officially registered more than two million cases of Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic: 2,058,872, to be exact. And they are probably “few”, given that on the one hand health workers are preparing for a possible post-holiday peak driven by the fast-spreading Omicron variant and on the other hand the numbers of the last few days could represent only the tip of the iceberg given the difficulty in processing all tampons. But there is also who doens’t provide the data at all, such as Alberta.

As high as the official numbers are, experts say the real number of infections is likely to be much higher. Several provinces have asked their citizens to be tested only if they have symptoms as hospitals and centers have reached testing limits. The Alberta government, for example, has suggested that most people should use rapid antigen tests instead of booking an appointment for a molecular test, to reserve supplies of the latter for high-risk individuals.

But then – as we said – there are those who, despite the emergency, have not yet provided them. While Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba reported thousands of new cases on Monday and today, Alberta hasn’t released data since December 23 and this sparked protests from some doctors and politicians, even in light of the escalation of the previous days: 786 on 21 December, 1,346 on December 22nd and 1,625 on December 23rd.

“There are rumours floating of more than 6,000 COVID cases over the past four days. We need to know that these figures are right and then we need a plan to get through this. Time for real leadership today. We can’t afford to wait any longer”, Alberta opposition leader Rachel Notley tweeted on Monday.

The report started from a Twitter account called “BedHuntersAB“, which published – every day since December 23 – the case numbers through data received from what it called “a verified source” (in the pic above, one of the tweets). The account therefore reported 6,718 cases of the virus over the four days. And on Monday it reported that 324 people are hospitalized with the virus, including 54 in intensive care.

“It’s a sad situation when we have to get Covid data from the black market,” emergency doctor Chuck Wurster tweeted on Sunday. “Worst of all, these figures could be a huge underestimate of real-world cases, as our government has told Alberts to use hard-to-find rapid tests instead of molecular swabs”.

“I trust the numbers that are spreading” said another emergency physician, doctor Joe Vipond of Calgary, according to whom “the numbers are a mixed bag. It is good news that hospitalizations and ICU patients are not increasing, but the case count is a disaster”, he said, as reported by the Calgary Herald.

According to the latest available official data from the province, published on December 23, there are 8,359 active cases of Covid-19 in Alberta. Of these, 318 were hospitalized, 64 of them in intensive care. Of the nearly 12,000 tests completed on December 22, 1,625 were positive, for a positivity rate of 13.6%.

The rise in cases has renewed concern for health systems of Alberta. Linda Silas, head of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, said the “big bump” usually occurs two weeks after exposure to the virus and she expressed concern that festive gatherings could lead to hospitals “being overwhelmed from new cases “.