The day after the Alberta government “safely and cautiously” moving ahead into Step 2 of the province’s “path forward,” Dr. Deena Hinshaw and Health Minister Tyler Shandro will provide an update on COVID-19 in the province and “the ongoing work to protect public health.”
The chief medical officer of health and minister will be making their comments at 4 p.m. and you can watch them in this story.
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On Monday, Premier Jason Kenney joined Hinshaw and Shandro to announce some physical activity at indoor facilities and libraries at limited capacity could reopen.
Kenney characterized the changes as “targeted health measures.”
“We’re not out of the woods, but we can continue taking small steps forward as we go into Step 2,” the premier said Monday.
Hinshaw recognized “some challenges” in vaccine rollouts were seen in long lines at some clinics, but those have been minimized with updated processes.
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Alberta’s top doctor also said the province identified 291 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Monday with a positivity rate of 4.9 per cent and a provincial rate of reproduction at 1.01. Two additional deaths were also reported.
Kenney said the recent uptick in positivity rate and new case numbers led the government to delay opening things like banquet halls, retail capacity, hotels and conference centres.
“Alberta is taking a careful approach, as we said that we would when announcing the path forward in January,” the premier said.
“We cannot and must not allow exponential growth to take hold, driven by these new, more contagious variants.”