Several doctors from Calgary and Edmonton say public health restrictions introduced by the Alberta government will not be enough to reduce spread of COVID-19 during the province’s third wave.
Premier Jason Kenney brought back tougher restrictions Tuesday that include shutting down indoor dining in restaurants and reducing retail capacity.
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Dr. James Talbot, co-chair of the COVID-19 committee with the Edmonton Zone Medical Staff Association, says those measures won’t reduce the stress on hospitals and intensive care units.
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Another expert, Dr. Gosia Gasperowicz with the University of Calgary, says cases related to the more contagious variants are doubling every week.
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She says cases during the second wave in the fall were doubling every two and a half weeks.
Gasperowicz says it would take a shutdown similar to one last spring to start bending the curve downward.
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Dr. Shazma Mithani, an emergency physician in Edmonton and a member of the Calgary and Area Medical Staff Society/Edmonton Zone Medical Staff Association, agrees.
“Our group of doctors is calling for a circuit-breaker or full lockdown for a period of several weeks in order to bend the curve effectively but also bring community transmission down significantly,” she said Wednesday.
“Close all non-essential services, encourage people to stay at home, only have contact with their household or their designated cohort, to limit exercise to only outdoors, no indoor exercise, no in-person dining — whether that’s indoors or on patios — and also have increased enforcement from AHS.”
— With a file from Emily Mertz, Global News
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