Shandro defends latest changes to COVID-19 rules

Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro is defending the province's move to end mandatory isolation and masking rules, saying the changes were recommended by chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw.

At an unrelated news conference Thursday morning, Shandro said these steps are being taken because vaccines are making COVID-19 less infectious and deadly.

Alberta is the first province in Canada to end these orders, but Shandro said every jurisdiction in the country will be moving in that direction.

“I think other provinces know this will be the inevitable next step,” he said.

On Wednesday, Hinshaw announced that quarantining for people who are close contacts of COVID-19 cases would no longer be mandatory as of Thursday.

Starting Aug. 16, Albertans who test positive themselves will no longer be legally required to isolate.

Provincial masking orders on transit, in taxis or ride sharing will expire on that day as well.

Provincial contact tracers will no longer call close contacts and masking will no longer be required in schools, but is recommended if there are outbreaks.

The province will also no longer do routine asymptomatic testing for close contacts.

Testing assessment centres close Aug. 31. After that testing will only be at places like doctors' offices for people with severe symptoms.

When asked who came up with these changes, Shandro said they were recommended by Hinshaw. He said the moves are based on science and data.

“We've seen for the last 16 months that, yes, we have many different opinions in the medical community and that's to be expected and that's encouraged,” he said.

“But our chief medical officer of health and the amazing work that her and her office have done through these last 16 months, I think deserves the deference that it deserves.”

Throughout the pandemic, Hinshaw has said that her job is to be an adviser but that final policy decisions come from the government.

Dr. Noel Gibney, a critical care physician and co-chair of the Edmonton Zone Medical Staff Association's pandemic response committee, said the government's plan would probably have worked if Alberta was only dealing with the original version of the virus but not now that the much more contagious Delta variant is involved.

“This is going to take them very close to the wall in terms of the numbers of individuals who are going to get sick and end up in hospital. I think they have significantly underestimated the consequences of the decisions that they've announced yesterday,” he told Postmedia Thursday.

Gibney said it's bad practice to tell people they don't have to isolate if they test positive, to not have contact tracing and to remove measures like masking. He said eliminating testing for people with only mild symptoms is also a bad idea.

“If you don't have testing, you don't have a clue what's going on.”

In recent weeks, Alberta has grappled with declining demand for both first and second doses of vaccine. Approximately 75.7 per cent of eligible Albertans 12 or older have received at least one dose and 64.6 per cent are fully immunized.

NDP Leader Rachel Notley said the changes are coming too soon, pointing out that one-third of the eligible population is not fully vaccinated.

“All we are asking is that the government keep doing the bare minimum, track the virus, tell people if they're exposed, ensure they don't spread it in their communities and protect our health-care system from being overwhelmed,” she said.

“I believe when it comes to removing these protocols, the risks far outweigh the rewards.”

She said no longer legally requiring people to self-isolate means workers will be forced to go to work to get paid and not lose their jobs.

“We are going to be creating a situation where infectious people will be going into highly public places,” she said.