In its COVID-19 reporting, Alberta Health classifies all related deaths as those in which COVID-19 was a direct or contributing factor.
COVID-19 is ruled a primary cause when it directly led to death, Hinshaw explained, whereas it being labelled as a secondary cause means the disease worsened a severe pre-existing condition that results in death. The province considers cancer -- among diabetes, dementia, chronic kidney disease and others -- as pre-existing health conditions.
新冠是導致死亡的 primary 或 secondary cause，這兩種情況在阿爾伯特都被認為是新冠死亡。
- primary cause：新冠直接導致死亡。
- secondary cause：新冠惡化了原有的疾病，然後這個疾病導致了死亡。
阿爾伯特有個14歲的少年因新冠死亡。消息出來後震動很大。後經過調查，該少年患有腦癌，屬不治之症，醫生認為患者隻能存活幾個月。在患者去世前，被發現感染有新冠，但新冠跟患者的死亡沒有任何關係，所以該少年不是死於新冠。阿爾伯塔的衛生官 Dr. Hinshaw 為此而道歉。
（加拿大是聯邦製，醫療由各個省自己負責，所以每個省的標準可能不一樣）
