Alberta’s chief medical officer of health to give update on respiratory virus season

Medical tools picture in an exam room at a health clinic in Calgary, Friday, July 14, 2023.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

EDMONTON — Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Vivien Suttorp, is set to give an update today on the state of the province’s respiratory virus season.

It comes as the province grapples with a hospital system strained in part by high rates of influenza.

Some physicians have been calling for emergency measures to help cope with the risk of long wait times and overcrowding in emergency rooms.

The ministry in charge of hospitals says higher patient volumes are due to an “early and unusually large” spike in flu cases in mid-December.

As of Jan. 3, the province counted 653 influenza cases in hospital, with 51 in intensive care.

Hospital admissions during early January have spiked far higher this season than in the previous four, while 133 people with influenza have died.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 13, 2026.