Province `putting our kids at risk,' protesters say
Rallies organized to oppose plans to end mandatory isolation and reduce tracing
About 200 people took to the Alberta legislature grounds Friday to protest the provincial government's decision to end mandatory COVID-19 isolation and masking rules and scale back contact tracing and testing.
People of all ages wearing face masks, including members of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, attended the peaceful noon rally. A second demonstration, led by physician Joe Vipond, took place at the Mcdougall Centre in Calgary.
Albert Nobbs, the organizer of the Edmonton protest, said the rest of the world is looking at the province as an experiment and watching closely with curiosity and horror.
“Our administration is gambling the results of this situation for the sake of their own political interest, and it doesn't make any sense,” said Nobbs. “They're putting our kids at risk, they're putting our system at risk, they're putting our public servants at risk and we have to say no, this is not something we will allow you to do.”
Starting Aug. 16, Albertans who test positive for COVID -19 will no longer be legally required to isolate. As of Thursday, close contacts of COVID -19 cases were no longer required to quarantine.
Provincial contact tracers will no longer call close contacts, or do routine asymptomatic testing for close contacts. Masking no longer will be required in schools, but recommended if there are outbreaks.
Provincial masking orders on transit, in taxis or ride-sharing will expire on Aug. 16 as well.
Testing assessment centres close Aug. 31. After that, testing will only be at places like doctors' offices for people with severe symptoms.
Alberta is the first province to take these steps. Health Minister Tyler Shandro defended the province's plan on Thursday, the day after it was announced, saying it is based on science and data and calling it “the inevitable next step.”
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada's chief public health officer, urged people to continue isolating, get tested for COVID -19 and inform their close contacts even if it is no longer required.
“I firmly believe that quarantine and isolation can help prevent the spread of COVID-19, especially in light of the spread of the Delta variant,” Tam said Friday during a news briefing in Ottawa.
In a letter to Shandro dated Friday, the Edmonton Zone Medical Staff Association said “removing supports is premature” since onein-four adults and all children under 12 remain unvaccinated and the Delta variant — the dominant strain in Alberta — has been shown to reduce the efficiency of vaccines.
The letter also called on the government to keep assessment centres in place, saying that community physicians were not consulted but instead found out through the government's news release.
“Our community physicians are backlogged, recovering from a larger workload due to the delay in care the pandemic has caused,” wrote Dr. Cheryl Mack, vice-president of the EZMSA.
Paul Boucher, president of the Alberta Medical Association, wrote a letter to members Friday, saying he, too, has shared concerns with Shandro, including the move to vaccinations in doctors' offices and the metrics the province is focusing on.
“It appears that there is an overreliance on hospitalizations and ICU admissions as the primary indicators. I am worried that this will lag too far behind spread of the virus in the community. By the time patients land in hospital or ICU, community care may be overrun,” Boucher wrote.
When it comes to vaccination rates per capita, the province continues to lag all others, with the exception of Saskatchewan. About 76 per cent of eligible Albertans have received at least one dose of vaccine and 65 per cent are fully immunized.
Tam pointed out that there are hundreds of thousands of unvaccinated people in Alberta, creating potential for large COVID-19 clusters and outbreaks.
“The bottom line is get vaccinated. There's still a ways to go in Alberta.”