Alberta moving back to Step 1 of reopening plan

Retail stores will be allowed 15 per cent customer capacity rather than the current 25 per cent, and low-intensity group fitness activities are once again banned.

Indoor social gatherings remain banned and outdoor get-togethers can have no more than 10 people.

The province has more than 10,809 active cases as of Tuesday’s update. Variants of concern make up more than 42 per cent of those cases.

“These variants are a real enemy of public health and of lives,” said Premier Jason Kenney today. “We must defeat these variants.”

There are 931 new cases in Alberta today. Medicine Hat has one new case on Tuesday and 44 active cases.

The premier added that projections show a weekly average of 2,000 cases per day by the end of the month based only on transmission that has occurred to date.

In December, during the second wave, Kenney said that figure was just under 1,900.

The premier said he knows there is a growing percentage of Albertans who have just given up and are not complying with the restrictions already in place.

But, he says, “we can only do this together.”

Following the measures already in place is the only way to avoid a prolonged situation, a massive number of cancelled surgeries and hundreds of preventable deaths, Kenney said.

He added more financial assistance will be provided by the government for those businesses forced to close with more details in the coming days.

Kenney expects there to be pushback from Albertans and his own party and caucus. He asked that any debate about the new measures be “informed by facts.”

He said the government has tried to find a middle ground between controlling spread of the virus and minimizing the broader social and economic impact and believes they’ve done well on that.

He said finding that balance has not been easy.

“But the government can not ignore the science. We can not dismiss the medical advice and we can not ignore the numbers,” Kenney said. “As premier, I can not in good conscience ignore the evidence and opt for policy that could result in hundreds of preventable deaths, of huge impact to our hospitals being flooded and other critical health procedures being put at risk.”

A new committee of MLAs will work with the health minister and Alberta Health Services to plot the soonest possible back to normalcy.

As part of that the vaccine rollout will be sped up, Kenney said. he said that almost three-quarters of Albertans will “have a good degree of immunity” by mid-September.

Bookings will be open to all Albertans over 16 years old with an eligible underlying condition in Phase 2B, and all Albertans 55-64 can book an AstraZeneca vaccine appointment. Seven rapid-flow-through clinics will open this week including one in Medicine Hat and some pharmacies will soon begin to take walk-in bookings.

“Widespread vaccination is the finish line we all need to head for,” said Kenney.

Medicine Hat now has had 615 total cases – the 44 active, 544 recovered and there have been 17 deaths.

There is one new case in the city and two new recoveries today.

Across the province, there are 10,809 active cases, up 227 from Monday, and 141,315 recovered cases, up 699.

Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 154,125.

There have been 6,986 variant cases ID’d in the province, 676 new today. There are 408 in the South Zone.

4,604 active cases (42.6 per cent of total) have been identified as variants of concern.

There are now 328 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 76 of which are in ICU, and 2,001 deaths.

The province completed 9,126 tests in the past 24 hours.

The positivity rate is about 10 per cent.

Alberta has delivered 734,403 doses of vaccine.

Until today an outbreak was listed on the provincial website at the Valleyview long-term care facility in Medicine Hat. The outbreak was opened on Feb. 12. It’s no longer listed.

There are 8,526 cases in the South Zone. There are 874 active cases and 7,546 recovered. The death total in the zone is at 106.

An AHS spokesperson told CHAT News on Monday that AHS South Zone currently has 35 COVID-19 positive individuals in hospital. There are 30 at Chinook Regional Hospital in Lethbridge, with eight of those in the ICU. Medicine Hat Regional Hospital has four inpatients, with one in the ICU. The Cardston Health Centre has one inpatient.

St. Michael’s School is on AHS Outbreak status after reporting five cases last week.

Ecole Connaught School has confirmed two variant cases. The first case was identified on March 31, the second on April 3.

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

The province-wide reproductive value from last week is 1.17. It is 1.17 in Calgary Zone, 1.18 in Edmonton Zone and 1.13 in the rest of Alberta. These figures are updated each Monday.

Cypress County has totaled 159 cases – 13 active cases and the rest recovered.

The County of Forty Mile has 130 total cases. There are six active cases, 121 recovered and there have been three deaths.

The MD of Taber has 421 total cases — 59 active cases, 356 recovered and there have been six deaths.

Special Areas No. 2 has 69 total cases – nine active cases, 59 recovered and there has been one death.

Brooks has 1,368 total cases — three active cases and 1,351 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 14 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 163 cases — three active cases, 158 recovered and there have been two deaths.

The County of Warner has 184 total cases. There are six active cases, 175 are recovered cases and there have been three deaths in the county.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 3,418 cases. There are 519 active cases, 2,869 recovered and there have been 30 deaths. Lethbridge County has 740 cases, 108 active cases, 624 recovered and there have been eight deaths.

The figures on alberta.ca are “up-to-date as of end of day April 5, 2021.”

Read the full April 6 update from the province here.

Saskatchewan has a total of 34,980 cases, 2,195 considered active. There are 32,342 recovered cases and there have been 443 COVID-19 deaths in the province.

Saskatchewan has delivered 227,471 doses of vaccine.

by Chris Brown

Alberta moving back to Step 1 of reopening plan

Our Community