EDMONTON – Alberta reported 1,609 new COVID-19 cases and 24 deaths on Wednesday.
There are 18,421 active cases and 877 COVID-19 hospitalizations, including a record high of 218 ICU admissions.
Ninety-two per cent of ICU cases are partially vaccinated or unvaccinated.
Of eligible Albertans, 79.5 per cent have received one dose and 71.4 per cent have two doses.
The province’s death toll is nearing 2,500 since the pandemic began.
CALGARY – The government of Alberta has joined other provinces across Canada in announcing a proof of vaccination program as COVID-19 cases continue to soar to well over a thousand per day.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Alta. Premier Jason Kenney said due to the escalating COVID-19 situation, which he described as a “crisis of the unvaccinated,” the province would enter into a proof of vaccination program.
“It has now become clear that we need to go further,” he said.
In addition to the vaccine passport, Kenney declared a state of public health emergency for the province.
“Unless we slow transmission, particularly among unvaccinated Albertans, we simply will not be able to provide adequate care to the sick based on current trends,” he said.
Of the number of patients in Alberta’s intensive care units, Kenney said 90 per cent are unvaccinated. The province set a pandemic high for the number of ICU admissions on Tuesday with 212.
“I do not say this to stigmatize people, but we all need to understand that the decision not to get vaccinated is not just a personal choice, it has real consequences for our whole society and for our ability of our hospitals to cope.”
In addition to the introduction of vaccine passports, Health Minister Tyler Shandro detailed a number of health restrictions that would be coming into force this month because of the spike in cases.
Starting Sept. 16, all businesses must implement work from home measures unless it is absolutely necessary for employees to be in the workplace.
Indoor gatherings of fully vaccinated Albertans are limited to a single household, plus one other household and with a maximum of 10 people. Anyone who is unvaccinated will not be able to attend any indoor gathering.
Outdoor gatherings are limited to a maximum of 200 people and physical distancing measures must be maintained.
Limits will also be returning to places of worship, Shandro said.
“(They) will be limited to maximum of one-third of the venue’s normal in-person capacity and masking is required. As well, physical distancing between households must be maintained.”
While schools were already instructed to have all students, staff and teachers to wear masks, the government now says elementary schools will be required to be split into cohorts.
“For physical activity in schools, youth who are 18 and under will not be required to mask or maintain physical distancing of two metres when participating,” Shandro said. “Spectator attendance is limited to one-third capacity and masking and physical distancing between households is required.”
The same restrictions apply to activities that occur outside of school.
Additional restrictions, which target businesses and other events, are scheduled to come into force on Sept. 20, Shandro said.
Those restrictions include a limit of six people per table for outdoor dining, continued curfews on liquor sales and consumption, and limits on attendance for events such as weddings and funerals.
Physical activities involving groups of adults will not be able to occur indoors, but individual training and workouts are permitted as long as there is three metres of space between participants.
In addition, businesses such as restaurants will be allowed to implement the government’s Restrictions Exemption Program, which requires Albertans to show a proof of immunization or negative COVID-19 test result from the previous 72 hours to access events and businesses.
Indoor dining will be shut down for any restaurant that doesn’t implement the government’s Restrictions Exemption Program.
Those rules apply to all residents aged 12 and older.
“If a business chooses not to implement a restrictions exemption program, they are then required to adhere to all the public health measures. Grocery stores and retail establishments are not eligible to implement a restriction exemptions program and will need to follow all of the new health measures,” he said.
Shandro says the new program is aimed at increasing vaccination rates across the province.
Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw reiterated her apology to Albertans, which was made last week.
During Wednesday’s media availability, she said the decision to loosen restrictions was made based on the “best information (she) had.”
“I regret that we made an endemic move to transition too soon,” she said. “We shifted our approach as soon as evidence showed hospitalizations were not decoupling from cases as we had expected and I have continued to update my recommendations as our situation has changed.”
Hinshaw says all the new restrictions are province-wide because the threat posed by the fourth wave of COVID-19 affects the entire region, not just Calgary and Edmonton.
“It is critical that we all embrace them regardless of where we live,” she said. “No single sector or area of our society is driving this spread alone. Instead, it is the result of close contact, whenever people gather together, especially indoors.”
When asked if she would resign from her post as Alberta’s top doctor, Hinshaw said she is devoted to offering her services to Albertans.
“I am deeply, deeply committed to the overall health of the province and, as I said in a media avaiability last week, it is Albertans’ choice of who they place their trust in and all I can do is do my best to serve and I do, every single day.”
NDP leader Rachel Notley said she was “appalled and angry” that the COVID-19 situation in Alberta has been allowed to reach a crisis level.
She said the premier was blaming Albertans for the state of the province by focusing on the vaccination rate rather than taking responsibility for late and insufficient government response.
“It should never have come to this,” she said. “The severity of this fourth wave and the consequences we see today are the direct result of this UCP government’s paralysis. But none the less, the actions announced are things that we need to take seriously and follow.”
Notley also expressed concerned about new plans for schools, which are trying to comply with no notice or supports and for Alberta businesses, which she said will need a lot of help from health officers to enforce new regulations.
Further details about the government of Alberta’s new COVID-19 health restrictions are available online.
EDMONTON – Seven people trying to become the next mayor of Edmonton faced off in another forum Tuesday night – this one focused on the “problems of Chinatown” – a term coined by the evening’s moderator.
Former mayor Bill Smith said Chinatown has serious concerns with petty and violent crime, which he said are being “escalated” by the presence of safe injection sites.
He asked candidates how, not if, they will remove all of the sites from Chinatown.
“With the three injection sites, in one close proximity in one community, is really a big mistake. Nobody would stand for that anywhere else in the city. They’ve dumped it here in Chinatown and I hope whoever is going to be the mayor deals with it,” Smith said in an interview.
The event was held in a busy restaurant on 97 Street and hosted by the Chinatown & Area Business Association and the Chinese Benevolent Association.
Mayoral candidates Amarjeet Sohi, Mike Nickel, Michael Oshry, Cheryll Watson, Rick Comrie, Kim Krushell and Diana Steele all attended.
Each candidate was asked individually how they will remove the injection sites.
“It is not compassionate to let these people to continue to walk the streets. It is broken. These people are broken. They need treatment for trauma and addiction,” Nickel said, not directly addressing the question about removing sites.
Mike Nickel at mayoral forum. Tuesday Sept. 14, 2021 (Sean Amato/CTV News Edmonton)
“You can build more housing if you want to, but that does not get people off the streets where they need treatment for trauma and addiction. That is a long-term solution,” he said.
He added he will not “defund the police” and provide that funding for social supports.
Oshry spoke about his promise to build 1,000 supportive housing units and convert old busses to provide showers and washrooms in the inner city.
He wants to add police in Chinatown and spread supportive housing out more evenly across the city.
Oshry did not commit to removing all the sites either.
“(Addiction) is not a personality flaw, it’s a medical condition and they need support…that being said, having a concentration in one neighbourhood is not appropriate. My idea would be to have one location in the city and then move them around the city,” Oshry said.
None of the candidates suggested specific alternative sites.
Krushell said she was open to relocating sites – but not because of crime. She believes the sites need to be spread out to provide better services.
“Harm reduction sites do save lives, but what I’m hearing…it doesn’t make sense to concentrate injection sites in one location. So what I’m calling for is that we review the locations and we look at where the actual need is,” she said.
Sohi said he would work to convince other orders of government to invest in supportive housing and addiction support.
“I hear you. I know these issues have affected you, your businesses, your lives, and your safety. And you have more on your shoulders, the burden, that’s unreasonable,” he told the room.
Watson said she’s spoken with social agencies who don’t believe the sites should be centred in Chinatown.
“My commitment is to work collaboratively with those agencies to find the right areas in our city to distribute those services,” she promised.
A 2020 report released by a Government of Alberta panel found that 911 calls generally increased near safe injection sites, except in Edmonton.
Supervised injection sites “help save lives and build safer communities,” according to the Alberta Health Services website.
The Edmonton election is Oct. 18.
EDMONTON – The inaugural Audible Indigenous Writers Circle is underway, with 15 Indigenous participants from across the country workshopping their writing with five mentors over the next several months.
Two of the five mentors are Edmonton-based – Inuk writer and academic Norma Dunning, and Metis writer and professor Chelsea Vowel. The others are Tanya Talaga, Richard van Camp and Kim Wheeler.
Vowel, who began her writing career as a blogger, says it’s important for Indigenous people to have a space where they can develop their writing abilities.
“Even though there are now quite a few publications out there by Indigenous people across genres – there’s so much more now than there was when I was younger – it’s still a difficult industry to break into if you don’t have connections,” she told Alberta Native News.
Vowel says that when she first started writing, she faced a steep curve learning how the publishing industry works.
“We have to do that for one another because nobody else is going to help us,” she said.
Dunning says she’s honoured to be in the company of her fellow mentors.
“Their creativity makes my head spin,” she said. “It has just been wonderful to be a part of this.”
The program operates simply. The student submits their writing to the mentor, and the mentor provides them with feedback and direction, and sets a deadline for their next submission, Dunning explained.
“I find when people start writing, they just keep going,” she said. Edmonton-based student Scott Olsen, 40, says he only recently became a writer, though he works as a social studies teacher at a public high school.
“I’ve always thought I’ve struggled with writing, in terms of being able to articulate my thoughts in a way that is fluent and easy for others to understand,” said Olsen, who has a Saddle Lake status card but lived in Edmonton his entire life.
He picked up writing when he went to get his master’s at the University of Alberta, where Vowel and Dunning teach.
While he struggled in undergrad, Olsen says the university has come a long way since in accepting Indigenous voices.
Olsen, whose grandmother survived a residential school and his mother survived the Sixties Scoop, says his writing documents his journey from a youth who resented education to one who embraced it, dealing with the tensions in his assimilated Indigenous identity.
“I’m stuck between worlds,” he said. “As much as I want to be a part of that Indigenous world, I struggle at times to find connection and purpose due to generational trauma.”
(Alberta Native News)
EDMONTON – Just barely into the new school year, some areas in the province with low vaccination rates are experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks in schools.
There are four elementary schools in the Wild Rose School Division, two in Drayton Valley and two in Rocky Mountain House, currently being investigated for COVID-19 outbreaks.
According to Amanda Krumins, a spokesperson for the government, all schools in the province are required to monitor absenteeism rates.
If the rate is higher than 10 per cent it has to be reported to Alberta Health Services and an investigation will be conducted.
Krumins noted an outbreak investigator will then contact the school to collect additional information about the types of symptoms, onset of symptoms, number of students and staff that are sick and the school’s total population.
“If there is a 10 per cent or greater absenteeism rate that includes similar symptoms, AHS Public Health will declare an outbreak,” Krumins added.
By population, Drayton Valley and Rocky Mountain House have some of the highest rates of COVID-19 in Alberta, according to the government’s website.
Current numbers show 47 per cent of eligible people in Drayton Valley and 50 per cent in Rocky Mountain House have at least one COVID-19 dose.
COVID-19 cases in schools are concerning enough for parents, but one in particular says she feels like they’re being left in the dark about what’s going on.
“It’s a little unnerving,” Sam Habetler, told CTV News Edmonton.
“Just like we’ve kind of all been for the last couple of years now.”
At this time, parents are not required to tell the school if their child tests positive for COVID-19.
“Our board had made a decision to follow the regulations and the guidelines given to us by those who have been appointed in our province to do that role,” said Brad Volkman, superintendent for the Wild Rose School Division.
Volkman said he believes the government has the best interests of his students and staff in mind with its current approach.
“We saw them pivot last year at different times, the government, when they needed to and so again we’re trusting that if this is not going to be effective, that they will… They will do what’s necessary.”
“The whole province is divided,” Habetler added. “Especially over this because no one is sure what to trust, or who you can actually listen to, or who has your best interests at heart.”
The provincial website does not currently list outbreaks in schools.
If AHS declares an outbreak, Krumins said it will recommend control measures to “reduce” ongoing transmission.
The current measures include:
According to Krumins, it takes roughly one day to complete a public health assessment before declaring an outbreak.
With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Jeremy Thompson