Positive Advances in Alberta’s Fight Against COVID-19 “Could Be Lost Overnight”: Prime Minister Warns Ahead of Thanksgiving | The Canadian News

Alberta officials say that while there have been positive signs and trends in the COVID-19 situation in the province recently, all could be lost if public health measures are not followed through the Thanksgiving long weekend.

At a press conference Thursday afternoon, Prime Minister Jason Kenney reminded Albertans that Thanksgiving 2020 prompted the start of the second wave of COVID-19 in the province last year.

“The second wave of COVID, which put heavy pressure on our hospitals last fall, started very clearly at the family table in millions of Alberta homes,” he said.

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The prime minister and medical director of health said there have been positive signs and trends regarding the number of cases, hospitalizations and the overall rate of positivity in recent times. Active COVID-19 cases have started to slowly decline, hovering around 18,400 on Thursday after peaking at around 22,000.

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While ICU hospitalizations and admissions remain at record highs, intensive care hospitalizations, cases, and patients have stagnated or slightly regressed.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw noted that Alberta has seen four days in a row a positivity rate below 10 percent, standing at 8.1 percent on Thursday.

Alberta’s R-value, also known as the breeding number, has also dropped to 0.731, according to new data released by the Public Health Agency of Canada on Friday.


Click to Play Video: 'Alberta Records 1,254 New COVID-19 Cases, 13 Deaths Ahead of Thanksgiving Long Weekend'



Alberta Records 1,254 New COVID-19 Cases, 13 Deaths Ahead of Thanksgiving Long Weekend


Alberta Records 1,254 New COVID-19 Cases, 13 Deaths Ahead of Thanksgiving Long Weekend

However, the prime minister stressed that all progress could be lost if Albertans are not cautious with the health measures in place.

“That is good news, but it is still very early and those advances are very tentative,” Kenney said.

“Everyone could be lost overnight this weekend if Albertans do not carefully follow the public health guidelines that we have put in place to protect our health care system, which is still under severe stress. So I beg Albertans not to read some recent encouraging data, a license to ignore public health guidelines and current restrictions. “

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Rules Gathering During Thanksgiving Long Weekend

Earlier this week, Alberta introduced new rules on gathering limits that lowered the limit for outdoor gatherings from 200 to 20 people.

Indoor social gatherings are not allowed for those who are eligible, but have not been vaccinated against COVID-19. For those who have received their vaccinations, the indoor gathering limit is 10 people, but no more than two households.

Has the fourth wave of COVID-19 peaked?

New Modeling COVID-19 in British Columbia Thursday suggests that we may have reached the peak of the fourth wave.

Data from the BC COVID-19 Modeling Group shows that measures introduced in mid-September have started to make a difference and that cases, hospital admissions and occupancy have started to decline.

However, the group said changes to testing and contact tracing in August “substantially reduced the fraction of infections that were reported.” When new daily case counts were around 1,600, it is believed they were probably close to 3,000.

While the group says it’s good news that Alberta is starting to see a downtrend, it comes with a caveat.

“It is too early to consider relaxing any measures at this stage,” said Dean Karlen of the BC COVID-19 Modeling Group.

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“But at least there is an encouraging sign that the peak has been reached.”

On Friday morning, Canada’s director of public health also said that the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have stabilized across Canada. However, Dr. Theresa Tam also noted that progress has not even been across Canada.

“Over the past month, lessons have been learned in cases where measures were relaxed too much or too early and especially when vaccination coverage remains low, providing further warnings about the relentless behavior and serious impacts of this virus.”

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Tam also stressed that public health measures must be maintained “so that we can safely get through the coming season of respiratory infections.”

Are additional measures on the way in Alberta?

In recent weeks there have been calls for the province to implement a “firewall” or short-term lockdown to help eliminate cases and protect the health care system. While Kenney did not definitively rule out the possibility of additional measures, he said the challenge is compliance.

“We believe that the measures we have taken have been effective, as Albertans responded positively. We will continue to monitor the situation very closely. If this turns in the wrong direction, if there is a widespread transmission over Thanksgiving weekend and that leads to positive growth, we will certainly consider additional measures if they are necessary to prevent the worst-case scenario in the healthcare system. . “Kenney said.

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“It is obvious that those who have not yet been vaccinated are largely those who are least likely to comply with public health measures,” he added. “So when you talk about a ‘lockdown’ date, it would actually mean punishing the 85 percent of Alberta adults who have done the right thing and got vaccinated.

“This is the real world challenge we are faced with.”

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