After a surge in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, the Alberta government has decided to finally listen to what health-care specialists have been cautioning, and backtrack on its plans to lift its few remaining pandemic-related restrictions.
While the Province intended to abandon its final COVID-19 health measures on Aug. 16 – mandatory self-isolation for patients with the virus, testing at assessment centres for symptomatic individuals and mandatory masking orders in public transit, taxis and ride-shares – government officials instead announced Aug. 13 that those measures will remain in place for another six weeks.
The about-face comes as Alberta is seeing upwards of 500 new COVID-19 cases each day – the highest daily counts since late May. The spike in cases, largely driven by the more-contagious Delta variant, has undone much of the good work accomplished by Alberta’s vaccination program in the spring, which drastically brought down case counts, hospitalizations and ICU admissions.
The spike is unfortunate, not only for the people who are getting sick with the virus, but also for hospital and health-care workers who will have to deal with yet another influx of COVID-19 patients. This was an entirely preventable spike, the result of Premier Jason Kenney’s hastiness in opening everything back up.
Another factor is the refusal of nearly a quarter of eligible Albertans to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, despite a plethora of evidence that points to their effectiveness.
While it has certainly been nice to enjoy a summer free of gathering restrictions, the free-for-all in public activities has certainly brought the virus back to the forefront. As a newsroom, we’re not advocating for a full-on return to public health restrictions, but we feel a more cautious reopening approach should absolutely have been heeded.
With schools starting up again in the coming weeks, it's reasonable to expect case counts to remain where they are currently at in Alberta for the foreseeable future. Hopefully, the province's vaccination rate will keep hospitalization and ICU admissions relatively low.
