COVID-19 rules to remain in place
Restrictions to stay until health system is no longer threatened, Hinshaw says
The Alberta government won't be loosening any more COVID -19 restrictions on businesses this week after allowing personal wellness services to reopen on Monday.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province's chief medical officer of health, said during her update Thursday that the measures brought in last month would remain until indicators such as hospitalizations and those in intensive care units (IUC) go down.
“There's no one perfect number that will tell us exactly the right time to shift,” she said. “What we're looking at is a combination of our new cases, our positivity rate, our R-value and our hospitalization and ICU numbers to make sure that we're not just using one single metric but all of those together.”
Earlier this month, the province said it would not loosen current measures on businesses until at least Thursday.
Personal wellness services such as barbershops and salons were allowed to reopen by appointment only on Monday, however, gyms, studios and recreation centres must remain closed.
Dine-in services are also prohibited under the current measures.
Hinshaw said what's most important is that the province's acute care system be able to respond to all health needs.
There are currently 726 people in hospital with 119 of those in ICU. Most hospitalizations are in the Edmonton and Calgary Zones.
Hinshaw said there's a misconception that there are no cases and no impact in rural zones, but those areas also have high numbers. She said the virus is not restricted to a specific area or zone and can travel anywhere.
“We have seen in the entire South Zone, our hospitalization levels starting to go up a little bit in recent days,” she said.
“I want to emphasize that our health system is provincial, we do rely on that capacity, not in any one specific area, but across the province.
“We do need to monitor that and make sure we have enough capacity before we start opening up.”
NDP health critic David Shepherd offered his support to the decision to extend the public health restrictions in a statement.
However, he said Albertans deserve more transparency and information from the government, including daily reporting of testing for variants and new cases detected and regular updates on vaccine rollout.
“Albertans have stepped up to the plate, they need their government to do the same,” Shepherd said.
The province reported 678 new infections on Thursday, bringing the total number of active cases to 10,256. That's a decrease of more than 1,700 since the start of the week.
Sixteen more people died from the virus, increasing the province's death toll to 1,500. More than 50 per cent of the deaths have occurred in the Edmonton Zone.
Roughly 14,000 tests were completed on Wednesday, resulting in a positivity rate of 4.8 per cent.
Thursday also marked one year since Hinshaw first spoke to Albertans about COVID-19.
She said it has been a difficult year for many in the province.
“The role of the chief medical officer of health has always been one of service to the public and has always been one that has had a role in providing information,” Hinshaw said. “I have taken great wisdom from the people who've been in this role before me and appreciate the path that they've set out.”
Meanwhile, Edmonton Public Schools recorded on Thursday single cases linked to Alberta School for the Deaf and Princeton and three to Fraser. M.E. Lazerte has had four cases linked to it since Wednesday.
Edmonton Catholic Schools recorded single cases linked to St. Thomas More, Louis St. Laurent, Cardinal Collins Mill Woods, Archbishop O'leary and St. Clement.