By Chris Brown

Following advice of CMOH, says Toews

Finance minister defends government’s response to fourth wave of pandemic

Aug 31, 2021 | 2:33 PM

The United Conservative government has faced a torrent of criticism in the past three weeks over their silence as the fourth wave of COVID-19 has run through the province.

Premier Jason Kenney and Health Minister Tyler Shandro have not been seen in public in at least three weeks, with their only public activities coming in the form of social media posts.

The last appearance by the chief medical officer of health was a back-to-school update on Aug. 13. The last full COVID-19 update was July 28.

This morning, Alberta’s finance minister, while presenting a first quarter fiscal update, defended his colleagues and their handling of the fourth wave.

“Dr. Deena Hinshaw has been providing daily updates through the website around the pandemic and those have been important. There was an announcement yesterday around another vaccination effort, an effort for boosters for at-risk Albertans,” said Travis Toews. “So we’ve not been silent and again I have complete confidence in our chief medical officer of health that she’ll continue to provide the appropriate updates at the appropriate time.”

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He denied the suggestion that the government has abdicated its responsibility during the fourth wave, which is being fueled by the highly-contagious Delta variant.

Albertans have pointed to the silence from leaders as cases rise, students return to school and no re-introduction of health measures as examples.

“I would say that’s an entirely false premise,” Toews said, again pointing to daily Twitter updates from Hinshaw and the fact that took questions today.

He added that due to the increased level of immunity through vaccinations that this wave won’t have the same effect other waves did on the health system, “particularly ICU capacity.”

Toews said it was expected that the fourth wave would be “a bit bumpy” but they are following the advice of the chief medical officer of health.

Some municipal governments, school divisions and private businesses have instituted their own health measures such as mask mandates and vaccination requirements.

This week, a group of doctors and health experts began a Protect our Province: COVID Briefing campaign, providing updates on the fourth wave and taking questions from the media.