Kenney: Health measures to remain in place for at least two more weeks

Those measures include a ban on all indoor and outdoor social gatherings, mandatory masks in all indoor public places, no in-person dining in restaurants and bars and the closure of gyms and hair salons.

He said he knows it’s frustrating for Albertans to hear this now, particularly amid the travel scandal that engulfed the United Conservatives over the past week.

“I know Albertans are angry because of the terrible judgment that many in government have shown. And they are right to be angry,” said Kenney. “After all of the terrible sacrifices that people have made for 10 months, it was insulting for government leaders to holiday outside the country.”

He said Albertans are right to be frustrated.

“But that frustration cannot stop hard decisions that must be made to protect public health,” said Kenney.

Businesses, organizations, service providers and others will be giving at least one week’s notice of any changes that will affect them so they will have time to plan.

Students and teachers will return to in-person classes on Jan. 11, as was the plan when the decision to move most to online learning was announced in November.

Kenney said the decision to resume in-class learning is based on carefully considering the importance of attending school in-person as well as the latest evidence of cases dropping in all school-related age groups in December.

On the travel scandal, Kenney says that on Jan. 1 when he said there would be no sanctions for those who had left the country, the party hadn’t fully established the whereabouts of all vacationers. He said that happened on Jan. 3 and then he took action the next day.

He said ultimately the buck stops with him and the culture in the caucus has to change and is changing.

In response to the hashtags #firekenney and #resignkenney that has been trending on social media in recent days, the premier said simply that he doesn’t govern by hashtags.

Kenney said he’ll have more to say about the province’s vaccine program on Friday.

There are 37 active cases in Medicine Hat on Thursday.

The city now has had 482 total cases – the 37 active, 436 recovered and there have been nine deaths.

There are three new cases in the city in Thursday’s update and three recoveries.

Across the province, there are 13,298 active cases, down 152 from Wednesday, and 93,954 recovered cases, up 1,096.

Alberta’s total number of COVID-19 cases from the start of the pandemic is 108,469.

There are 968 new cases in the province today.

There are now 871 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 139 of which are in ICU, and 1,217 deaths.

The province completed 14,833 tests in the past 24 hours.

The provincial positivity rate is 6.4 per cent.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw said the decrease in COVID-19 numbers since the restrictions were implemented in December is a testament to the hard work of many.

But the spread of the virus is still very high, averaging more than 1,000 daily new cases, she said.

“Our health-care system is still under extreme pressure and this is impacting our ability to care for all the health needs of Albertans,” said the chief medical officer of health. “We still have not seen the impact of the recent holidays and we will be closely monitoring the spread over the coming weeks to determine whether it is safe to recommend beginning to relax our current approach.”

On the decision to return to schools, she added evidence shows in-school transmission is not the main driver for cases in the school-age population.

She said the wider restrictions are remaining in place “as these other activities seem to have been a much more important driver of spread.”

She said the most important factor to keeping society overall healthy remains limiting transmission in communities.

Medicine Hat and the entire province remains in enhanced status, in which risk levels require enhanced public health measures to control the spread and are informed by local context.

Medicine Hat remains on the provincial “Watch” list, though is only three cases above the threshold.

Regions are placed on the province’s “Watch” list when they have a rate of more than 50 active cases per 100,000 population. Medicine Hat’s 37 active cases among 68,057 people puts it at a rate of 54.4.

Cypress County with a rate of 53.5 on six active cases is back on the “Watch” list.

Brooks (67.4 rate), The County of Newell (86.5), Lethbridge (80.8) Lethbridge County (138.7) and the MD of Taber (79.5) are also on the list.

The County of Forty Mile is no longer on the “Watch” list.

There are 5,167 cases in the South Zone. There are 252 active cases and 4,852 recovered. The death total in the zone is at 63.

An AHS spokesperson told CHAT News on Wednesday the South Zone currently has 17 COVID-19 positive individuals in hospital. There are seven at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital, with one of those in the ICU. Chinook Regional Hospital in Lethbridge has eight inpatients, with two of those in the ICU. The Taber Health Centre and Pincher Creek Health Centre have one inpatient each.

On Thursday there are 294 schools in the province where outbreaks have been declared. Alberta Health’s threshold for declaring an outbreak in school is two cases being in a school while infectious within 14 days.

In Brooks, an outbreak is listed at Christ the King Academy and Holy Family Academy is on the Watch list.

The website Support Our Students is tracking instances of cases in schools across the province.

Cypress County has totaled 144 cases – six active cases and the rest recovered.

The County of Forty Mile has 114 total cases. There is one active case, 111 recovered and there have been two deaths.

The MD of Taber has 318 total cases — 15 active cases, 297 recovered and there have been six deaths.

Special Areas No. 2 has 37 total cases – three active, 33 recovered and there has been one death.

Brooks has 1,354 total cases — 13 active and 1,327 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 14 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 145 cases — seven active cases, 136 recovered and there have been two deaths.

The County of Warner has 146 total cases. There are three active cases, 141 are recovered cases and there have been two deaths in the county.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 1,463 cases. There are 80 active cases, 1,374 recovered and there have been nine deaths. Lethbridge County has 457 cases, 35 active cases, 415 recovered and there have been seven deaths.

The figures on alberta.ca are “up-to-date as of end of day Jan. 6, 2021.”

Read the full Jan. 7 update from the province here.

Saskatchewan confirmed 334 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday.

Saskatchewan has a total of 17,138 cases, 2,947 considered active. There are 14,014 recovered cases and there have been 177 COVID-19 deaths in the province.

by Chris Brown

Kenney: Health measures to remain in place for at least two more weeks

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