New restrictions necessary to protect health system and save lives, says premier

The new restrictions that take effect on Sunday and include the closure of restaurants, bars and coffeeshops for in-person dining, recreational facilities will need to shutter as well as hair and nail salons along with tattoo parlours. The same goes for libraries, museums, casinos, bingo halls and bowling alleys.

Retail businesses and places of worship will be allowed to remain open but must reduce capacity to 15 per cent of fire code occupancy.

There will also be a province-wide restriction on in-person work that will require employees to work from home unless required to be onsite to maintain operations.

The restrictions will be in effect for at least the next four weeks, but progress will be assessed then and if it’s safe to return to less-stringent restrictions in areas in the province with lower transmission, “we’ll happily do so then,” said Kenney.

Schools will remain status quo with Grade 6 and below continuing in-person classes. Higher grades in the province switched to at-home learning on Monday.

Outdoor skating rinks and ski hills will be allowed to remain open.

Hotels can remain open but their pools, fitness facilities and restaurants must remain closed.

Kenney says the rising cases of COVID-19 are not only leading to direct stresses within the health system but indirect ones as well with surgeries now being postponed risking the lives of thousands of Albertans.

“That is not an opinion. That is a fact,” said Kenney.

The premier said it has always been the government’s preference to take a regional approach to restrictions, but they have concluded that is not viable right now.

Kenney said 97 per cent of Albertans live today in a local geographic area with more than 50 active COVID cases per 100,000 population and that was a key threshold.

“The virus is spreading at an alarming rate in every region of the province and many of those who fall ill in rural areas do end up being cared for in the increasingly hard-pressed large uban hospitals,” said Kenney.

The premier pleaded with Albertans not to have large family gatherings over Christmas saying if that happens, “we will without a shadow of a doubt see a large increase in hospitalizations and fatalities.”

He offered a hard truth to those who plan to gather, saying that clearly the biggest single source of viral transmission is at-home gatherings.

“We simply cannot let this Christmas turn into a tragedy for many families,” said Kenney.

To assist businesses with the new restrictions, Minister of Jobs, Economy and Innovation Doug Schweitzer says the provincial Small and Medium Enterprise Relaunch Grant providing funding of up to 15 per cent of pre-pandemic revenue up to a maximum of $20,000.

The threshold to apply has also been lowered to losses of revenue of 30 per cent or more while it will be applied retroactively to April.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw spoke of the impact the virus has had on this province, with more than 72,000 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

“If you gathered everyone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19 together it would be the fifth-largest city in Alberta,” said the chief medical officer of health.

Outbreaks have happened in almost every type of group setting and age group. The youngest reported case was less than one year old and the oldest was 108.

“We are all at risk of COVID-19. We are all impacted by the toll it is taking on our health system,” said Hinshaw.

by Alex McCuaig

New restrictions necessary to protect health system and save lives, says premier

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