By Chris Brown

Vaccines for teachers starting Tuesday

Province to announce new restrictions as active COVID-19 cases in Medicine Hat shoot up

May 3, 2021 | 4:52 PM

Stronger public health measures are coming on Tuesday and all Alberta teachers, child care workers and school support staff will be able to book COVID-19 vaccination appointments.

Premier Jason Kenney says vaccinations are the ticket to getting out of the pandemic and back to normal but adds that right now it is not enough.

“Cases and hospitalizations are rising faster than our vaccines are arriving. We need to bend the curve in the next few weeks, which means we need folks to follow the rules,” he says.

Kenney says he was angered to see large numbers of people gathered this weekend in Bowden at what was advertised as an anti-lockdown rodeo.

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He says the gathering was in flagrant violation of the restrictions in place and of any common sense of the public health measures.

“That event was organized by people who simply don’t care. Apparently, they don’t care about COVID and apparently, they don’t care about the sacrifices that millions of Albertans are making every single day,” says Kenney.

He says those people don’t care about and are choosing to ignore the hundreds of Albertans in hospital and ICU battling the disease and in some cases fighting for their lives.

He adds it’s astounding so many people in the province still don’t believe that COVID is real or some kind of big government conspiracy or hoax.

“The reason we are at this critical stage of the pandemic in Alberta with record high daily case counts and intensive care numbers is precisely because, for whatever reason, too many Albertans are ignoring the rules we currently have in place,” _{says Kenney.}

He implored Albertans to take the pandemic seriously.

“Given the issues we saw this weekend and the record high cases recorded, we are developing a package of stronger public health measures which I expect to announce tomorrow,” Kenney said.

He adds the actions of Albertans in the next few weeks will determine whether we get a summer of lighter restrictions and low spread thanks to vaccines or whether we are still stuck battling spread of the virus.

“If you choose to ignore the restrictions … just know that you’re setting everyone back. And we all want to see this pandemic over,” Kenney said.

Alberta Teachers’ Association President Jason Schilling issued the following statement in response to today’s announcement that school staff would be prioritized for COVID vaccination.

“About time.”

With teachers and other school staff allowed to book vaccine appointments tomorrow, Dr. Deena Hinshaw reminded people the importance of everyone eligible choosing protection for themselves and those around them.

There are 231 active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat on Monday.

Medicine Hat now has had 959 total cases – the 231 active, 710 recovered and there have been 18 deaths.

There are 24 new cases in the city and five new recoveries in the city today.

Across Alberta, there are 23,608 active cases, up 688 from Sunday, and 171, 212 recovered cases, up 1,320.

Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 196,910.

There have been 35,014 variant cases ID’d in the province, 1,900 new today. There are 1,725 in the South Zone.

15,054 active cases (63.8 per cent of total) have been identified as variants of concern.

There are 2,012 total new cases in the province today.

There are now 658 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 154 of which are in ICU, and 2,090 deaths.

The province completed 15,058 tests in the past 24 hours.

The positivity rate is about 13 per cent.

Alberta has administered 1,640,303 of vaccine at the latest update.

There are 10,725 cases in the South Zone. There are 1,261 active cases and 9,345 recovered. The death total in the zone is at 119.

An AHS spokesperson told CHAT News on Monday that AHS South Zone currently has 31 COVID-19 positive individuals in hospital. There are 22 at Chinook Regional Hospital in Lethbridge, with four of those in the ICU. Medicine Hat Regional Hospital has eight inpatients. The Cardston Health Centre has one inpatient.

St. Mary’s School has announced five cases of COVID-19 have been identified at the school, putting it on AHS Outbreak status. The school has moved to online learning until May 17.

Alexandra Middle School, CAPE School and Notre Dame Academy have also moved to temporary online learning due to COVID-19 cases.

Over the weekend cases were identified at three schools in the Medicine Hat Public School Division – River Heights Elementary School, Crescent Heights High School and Dr. Ken Sauer School.

There are now four cases at River Heights, three at Crescent Heights and two at Ken Sauer.

AHS notified officials late Monday of a new infection at Crestwood school as well.

READ MORE: Contact tracing getting to be a lot for local school division

AHS lists River Heights, Crescent Heights and Medicine Hat Christian School on Alert status. CAPE School is also on AHS Alert status.

A case of COVID-19 was also identified at Mother Teresa School over the weekend.

Previously, cases have been identified at St. Francis Xavier School and at Ecole St. John Paul II School in the Catholic division.

Prairie Rose Public Schools has announced confirmed cases connected to Bow Island Elementary School and Irvine School. Irvine School is on Outbreak status.

There are also positive COVID-19 cases Seven Persons School, which is on Alert status.

Brooks Junior High School and Christ the King in Brooks are on AHS Outbreak status and Brooks Composite High School and Eastbrook Elementary School in that city are on AHS Alert status.

Eagle Butte High School and Connaught School reported cases more than one month ago.

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

The province-wide reproductive value from last week is 1.12. It is 1.16 in Calgary Zone, 0.99 in Edmonton Zone and 1.18 in the rest of Alberta. These figures are updated each Monday.

Cypress County has totaled 231 cases – 36 active cases and the rest recovered.

The County of Forty Mile has 149 total cases. There are 11 active cases, 135 recovered and there have been three deaths.

The MD of Taber has 506 total cases — 39 active cases, 462 recovered and there have been five deaths.

Special Areas No. 2 has 83 total cases – 10 active cases, 72 recovered and there has been one death.

Brooks has 1,413 total cases — 41 active cases and 1,358 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 14 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 181 cases — seven active cases, 172 recovered and there have been two deaths.

The County of Warner has 349 total cases. There are 112 active cases, 234 are recovered cases and there have been three deaths in the county.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 4,327 cases. There are 452 active cases, 3,839 recovered and there have been 36 deaths. Lethbridge County has 1,028 cases, 168 active cases, 848 recovered and there have been 12 deaths.

The figures on alberta.ca are “up-to-date as of end of day May 2, 2021.”

Read the full May 23 update from the province here.

Saskatchewan has a total of 41,806 cases, 2,397 considered active. There are 38,911 recovered cases and there have been 498 COVID-19 deaths in the province.

Saskatchewan has delivered 450,823 doses of vaccine.