The head of the association that represents Alberta’s doctors is crossing her fingers and hoping that Albertans will continue to take COVID-19 risks seriously even as the provincial government moves fast to ditch its measures.
© Provided by Edmonton Journal
© Provided by Edmonton Journal
A pedestrian walks past advertisements for COVID-19 vaccinations and rapid testing and the City Centre Clinic,10264 100 St., in Edmonton on Monday Feb. 7, 2022.
Kellen Taniguchi , Lisa Johnson
Edmonton Journal
After Premier Jason Kenney announced the plan to lift COVID-19 measures, beginning with the vaccine passport at midnight Tuesday, Alberta Medical Association (AMA) president Dr. Michelle Warren said Wednesday in an interview with Postmedia the plan did not come as a surprise, but did appear “a bit rushed,” considering the total number of people in hospital is still “higher than it’s ever been.”
“Everybody is just nervous because we don’t have capacity to deal with a significant upswing in the system,” said Warren, who noted that many AMA members have reached out and expressed concern about the negative effects of public health measures, including on mental health.
“Time is ultimately going to be our judge of whether we picked the right time,” said Warren, adding the province needs to monitor the situation closely, and that she would rather see the vaccine passport, which would otherwise have needed to include a third booster shot requirement, ditched before masking mandates and social distancing, which are critical to driving COVID-19 numbers down.
While Warren said restrictions being loosened soon seemed inevitable, she stressed that COVID-19 is not done, and Albertans cannot pretend it is, and need to help decrease the spread, including getting a COVID-19 vaccine booster and wearing a mask, which for now is still mandatory in public indoor settings.
News of the restrictions being lifted was met with concern, confusion and a clamour to consider other options by the City of Edmonton , business groups, and the Edmonton Public School board. Edmonton’s city mask bylaw still remains in effect for children two and up in indoor, public spaces, not including schools.
At a news conference Wednesday, NDP Leader Rachel Notley called the government’s plan a “rushed and chaotic” mess, and challenged Kenney’s assertion that hospitalizations are declining.
“I don’t trust a single solitary word that comes out of his mouth on these issues, because he’s done nothing but hide the complete picture from Albertans since Day 1,” Notley said, pointing to the government’s lack of consultation with schools, health care staff and elected local officials.
Alberta Health Services’ spokesman Kerry Williamson said Wednesday without added ICU surge beds, the provincial health system would be at 116 per cent ICU capacity, which is less than during the fourth wave, when capacity hit a high of 178 per cent in October. However, like Warren, he noted that a tired and stressed health-care workforce doesn’t have the same ability to care for patients as in previous, pre-pandemic years.
“We are under strain. That’s not normal,” said Warren.
A pandemic response unit with 18 beds first opened in Edmonton in January remains open, treating nine overflow patients.
During his Tuesday news conference, Premier Jason Kenney said COVID-19 is putting extra pressure on the hospital system, but hospitalization numbers and active case counts are trending down.
On Wednesday, when the province’s vaccine passport was officially lifted, COVID-19 hospitalizations saw a slight decline while intensive care unit patients jumped by six. There are currently 1,615 Albertans in hospital with the virus, a decrease of eight from the previous day. Of those in hospital, 135 are in ICU.
Alberta Health Services (AHS) inpatient bed forecasts obtained by the NDP and released Wednesday suggest COVID-19 admissions were, a week ago, projected to be up to 1,422 or as low as 1,160 by Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Alberta Health reported hundreds more, with 1,623 patients in hospital due to COVID-19, still an increase of 81 since the previous day’s official update.
However, the modelling predicted a decline in the coming days to a worst-case scenario of 1,206 hospitalizations.
On Wednesday, an additional 11 new deaths were reported, but one previously reported death was determined to be unrelated to COVID-19, bringing the province’s pandemic death toll to 3,696.
While hospitalizations remained static on Wednesday, active cases across the province continued to drop. There are now 26,896 active cases in Alberta, a decrease of 1,369 cases from the previous day.
The province reported 1,684 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, with a test positivity rate of 29 per cent.
As of Tuesday, 89.9 per cent of Albertans aged 12 and up have received at least one dose of a vaccine, 86.3 per cent are vaccinated with two doses and 40.1 per cent have received a booster shot.
As schools are forced to lift their mask mandate next week, 46 per cent of children aged five to 11 have received one dose of a vaccine, while 18.5 per cent have received two.
On Wednesday, Notley again accused Kenney of listening to protesters participating in an illegal blockade of the border crossing at Coutts demanding the repeal of vaccine mandates, and members of his party who support it, instead of the science.
The premier’s office did not respond to Postmedia’s request for comment Wednesday, but Kenney has previously denied the claim. Despite Kenney’s Tuesday announcement, protesters at Coutts continued to block cross-border traffic as of Tuesday night .
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