By Chris Brown

Numbers trending upwards

NDP wants government to hold off moving to next step of reopening

Mar 22, 2021 | 2:38 PM

The provincial NDP is calling on Premier Jason Kenney to delay any move by the government to loosen public health restrictions.

A government cabinet committee was to meet today to potentially make the decision to move into the next step of the province’s Path Forward plan. Last week, Kenney said data looked promising for moving forward.

Alberta’s NDP says that’s not the case.

“Alberta has not met the government’s own published criteria for moving into Step 3 which is for hospitalizations to be below 300 and trending downward,” NDP Leader Rachel Notley said today in Edmonton.

The most recent update, released Sunday, shows 282 hospitalizations, “but that number has actually increased every day for the past eight days,” Notley said. “It’s trending upward, not downward, and hospitalizations as we all know, are a lagging indicator.”

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She said daily new cases are also trending upward.

“They’ve been above 500 for several days, levels we haven’t seen for several weeks, and on Friday they almost touched 700,” Notley said.

There were 555 new cases in Sunday’s update. Active cases have risen from 4,697 on March 14 to 5,971 on March 21.

The NDP is also calling on the government to release the most recent modelling associated with the COVID-19 variants. Cases have gone from 920 to 1,601 in the past seven days.

Notley said Alberta should follow the lead of other provinces in providing the figures.

She said Albertans deserve the full picture of the threat that we face.

“Today I will urge the premier to exercise great caution and to put the safety of Albertans ahead of appeasing his caucus rebellion,” said Notley. “He must delay Step 3 until he has reversed the growing trend of growing case numbers and growing hospitalizations. And he must contain the spread of this dangerous new variant.”

In Step 3, entertainment venues such as movie theatres and casinos could reopen.

Retailers, restaurants, youth sports and in-person worship services are open or allowed with capacity restrictions. Outdoor get-togethers are limited to 10 people and indoor gatherings remain prohibited.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, is to provide an update Monday at about 3:30 p.m.