Fourth COVID wave hits new high

Kenney emerges on Facebook as daily case count reaches 1,315

Premier Jason Kenney popped up on a Facebook Live event Wednesday night, after not being seen since Aug. 9 and as Alberta's fourth wave of COVID-19 reached new heights with 1,315 cases of the virus reported.

Kenney appeared on his Facebook page to answer questions from Albertans, which included a query about where he'd been recently while the province battled the pandemic. He told viewers he was working at Mcdougall Centre in Calgary this week, but had taken a couple of weeks away — the second time since 2015 he'd taken a break like that.

Kenney noted, however, he was in touch with staff and ministers daily on a number of pressing issues, including COVID.

“It is problematic because we are starting to see an impact on the health-care system,” Kenney said, adding a news conference regarding COVID would occur this week.

The case count of 1,315 released Wednesday is the highest daily count since May 13.

The new cases occurred in unvaccinated Albertans at a rate 5.5 times higher that of their fully immunized peers. It was also the deadliest day of the fourth wave so far, with eight deaths from reported.

The continued surge comes the day after Alberta Health Services announced a vaccine mandate for its workers, but the provincial health authority says it doesn't know how many of its employees remain unvaccinated. AHS said it hasn't been keeping track of employee vaccination status throughout the pandemic, but that this data will now be collected following its Tuesday announcement that all workers must be fully immunized by Halloween or risk being placed on unpaid leave.

In announcing the mandate Tuesday, AHS president and CEO Dr. Verna Yiu said health-care workers have “an ethical and professional responsibility” to protect others, including by rolling up their sleeves for vaccines.

She added those who can't be vaccinated — either for medical reasons or due to protected grounds under the Alberta Human Rights Act — will be dealt with on a case-to-case basis, but could be accommodated by moving to a virtual care environment, for example.

The policy applies to AHS workers, as well as those employed by Alberta Precision Labs, Carewest, Capitalcare and Covenant Health. Students, volunteers and medical and midwifery staff are also under the mandate.

Hundreds of protesters, including some nurses, gathered at Foothills hospital in Calgary Wednesday afternoon to rally against vaccine mandates. Other nearby protesters held up signs supporting such measures.

Nurse Selena Clauson said she believes in “absolute freedom” for people to choose whether to get immunized.

“If somebody is afraid, if they are at risk and they are afraid, they have the choice to protect themselves,” she said. “It's not my responsibility to keep everyone safe.”

The majority of Albertans has been immunized against COVID-19, with 66.4 per cent of all Albertans with at least one shot, and 59.5 with both necessary doses. Among eligible Albertans age 12 and over, those rates increase to 78.1 per cent for first doses and 69.9 per cent for second doses.

That still leaves nearly 22 per cent of eligible Albertans who have not yet had a single dose of vaccine, however. Health-care workers who have not yet had their shot likely have the same reservations as other Albertans in the same boat, said Dr. Jia Hu.

“There's various reasons people don't get the vaccine. It's a combination of lack of confidence in the vaccine and (lack of ) concern with COVID,” said Hu, a Calgary public-health physician with 19 to Zero, a local campaign to build trust in vaccines.

Hu applauded the AHS decision to bring in a vaccine mandate. He said resources should be made available to educate workers on the impact and safety of vaccines.

“Oftentimes we view vaccine mandates as a way to increase vaccine uptake, but the primary purpose of vaccine mandates is to make high-risk settings safer,” he said.

The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) and the Health Sciences Association Of Alberta (HSAA) both said they do not know what percentage of their members have their COVID-19 shots. The United Nurses of Alberta declined to comment. All three unions represent some AHS employees.

In a statement, the AUPE said it has encouraged its members to get their vaccine shots since they became available. They said they are consulting with their labour relations professions and legal counsel to ensure accommodations are made for those who can't be immunized due to medical or religious reasons.

HSAA president David Parker told Postmedia most of his union's workers are already vaccinated, and that he pushed the government to get some workers like paramedics on vaccine priority lists as the rollout was beginning.

He said the policy isn't a surprise, as some vaccines are already required to become a front-line health-care worker in Alberta, but added his union would work to protect its workers' rights.

“To be clear, this should not have been coming from an employer. It shouldn't be coming from sports teams or concert venues,” Parker said.

“It should be coming from our government, who is absentee at this time. It should have come from the chief medical officer of health, who is absentee at this time, as our members move into the fourth wave of this pandemic.”

Alberta's top doctor, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, has not spoken to the media since Aug. 13, nearly three weeks ago. Until the Wednesday Facebook event, it had been even longer since Albertans had heard from Premier Jason Kenney (Aug. 9) or Health Minister Tyler Shandro (July 23).

Speaking at an unrelated news conference Wednesday, Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said he has received one message from Kenney in the past month. He hasn't heard from any government officials since.

“Our protocols in the City of Calgary are pretty strict, which is, if you are on vacation someone is covering for you,” Nenshi said.

Though AHS has now introduced a vaccine mandate, the provincial government has maintained throughout the past several months Alberta will not impose a provincial vaccine passport system to access government or private services.

Nenshi said Calgary council does not have the authority to introduce a vaccine mandate for any areas beyond city facilities. He criticized the province for leaving municipalities, businesses and school boards to create a patchwork of public-health policy in the absence of provincial directives.

“Nobody who does the actual modelling said COVID was over ... We all knew there would be a fourth wave in fall. Anyone who is watching the data anywhere in the world knew this was going to happen,” Nenshi said.

“This has been a complete and total dereliction of duty from the provincial government.”