Kenney announces lockdown-style restrictions
EDMONTON — One day after Alberta’s top doctor said the province’s COVID-19 measures weren’t working, Premier Jason Kenney announced an immediate mandatory mask law, a shutdown of restaurants and bars and a ban on social gatherings of any kind.
The measures, which Kenney described as a “last resort,” will last at least four weeks — meaning, family gatherings will be prohibited over the Christmas season.
“We simply cannot let this Christmas turn into a tragedy for many families,” said Kenney. “I know how devastating today’s announcement and these measures are.”
On Monday, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, in announcing the new daily case count, said Albertans are failing to bend the curve down to levels sufficient to keep the health-care system from becoming overwhelmed. The admission came less than two weeks after the province announced a partial lockdown: in-home gatherings were barred; new rules for household-only dining-out were put in and, a few days later, junior high and high school students were shifted to at-home learning.
“So, we will need — if the goal is to bring our numbers down — we’ll need additional measures to be able to do that,” said Hinshaw on Monday. “I do believe we do need additional restrictions in order to bring our case numbers down and protect our health-care system.”
Pressed by reporters, Hinshaw said the situation would be worse absent the measures announced in late November
— but didn’t go much further than that. As of Tuesday, there were 20,388 active cases in Alberta, 640 people have died. More than 650 are in hospital, with 112 of them in intensive care units.
Kenney started his remarks by lauding Alberta’s pandemic response, saying Albertans had “done an admirable job” of responding to the pandemic and lauded the province’s healthcare workers who are working “under growing stress.”
“But, having said that, we all know that the last few weeks have been a different story,” Kenney said.
The measures announced Tuesday expand on the closures announced less than two weeks ago.
“Alberta’s government has carefully regarded every relevant bit of data and every reasonable argument, of which there have been many,” Kenney said.
While the mask law came into effect immediately, the others will be in place as of this Sunday. Retail, including malls, and houses of worship will be restricted to 15 per cent of fire code capacity; casinos, pool halls and private clubs will close. Gyms, arenas and swimming pools — among others — will also close, as will facilities like libraries and galleries.
Personal non-medical services like hair salons, massage and tattoo parlours will close. Community kitchens, shelters and services like physiotherapy will be allowed to remain open. There will also be a mandatory work-fromhome order, unless employers determine a worker must be in the office.
As of Monday, Alberta cleared 20,000 active COVID19 cases for the first time during the pandemic. The province has been struggling to contain the virus for weeks, now, and is leading the country in total active cases; the next hardest-hit province is Ontario, with roughly 16,000 cases and more than triple the population.
The Kenney government has come under fire for its handling of the pandemic; multiple open letters, with hundreds of medical professionals as signatories, have urged the government to take stronger action. And, on some fronts, such as mandatory mask wearing, municipalities — and not just Edmonton and Calgary — have enacted bylaws when the provincial government has demurred.
“Let’s hang in there together,” said Kenney.