Image from Alberta Government Livestream

By rdnewsNOW staff

BREAKING

Alberta announces tighter restrictions for COVID “hotspots” including Red Deer

Apr 29, 2021 | 5:32 PM

EDMONTON, AB– Premier Jason Kenney has announced new targeted COVID-19 measures aimed at curbing growth of the virus in notspots across Alberta.

Tighter restrictions on in-person schooling, indoor fitness, and others are being put in place for Red Deer, Edmonton, Calgary, Fort McMurray, Airdrie, Grande Prairie, Lethbridge, and Strathcona County.

The following restrictions will be in place for two weeks:

Schools – Starting May 3:

• While schools remain a safe place and are not a main driver of community spread, in order to limit in-person interactions, all junior and senior high school students (Grades 7 and above) will shift to online learning.
• K-6 students will continue in-classroom learning unless otherwise approved by Alberta Education to shift to online-learning.

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Indoor fitness – effective April 30:

• All indoor fitness activities are prohibited. This includes:
  • all group physical activities, such as team sports, fitness classes and training sessions
  • all one-on-one lessons and training activities
  • all practices, training and games
• Outdoor fitness activities may continue under provincewide restrictions currently in place, including individual or household one-on-one training with a trainer.

Indoor sport and recreation – effective April 30:

• All youth and adult indoor group physical activities, including team sports and one-on-one training sessions, are prohibited.
• Outdoor sport and recreation activities may continue under provincewide restrictions currently in place:
  • Outdoor team sports where two-metre distancing cannot be maintained at all times (such as basketball, volleyball, soccer, football, slow-pitch and road hockey) remain prohibited.
  • Outdoor fitness training is allowed, as are physically distanced group fitness classes with a maximum of 10 participants.
  • Outdoor group physical activity with different households must be limited to 10 people or fewer and two-metre distancing must be maintained at all times.
• All indoor recreation facilities must close. Outdoor recreation amenities can be open to public access unless specifically closed by public health order.

This announcement comes after Alberta recorded a record 2,048 new COVID cases Thursday.

There will also be a curfew in certain spots of the province specifically in places where case rates are above 1,000 per 100,000 population.

With more than 21,000 active cases in the province, Kenney says this was “needed.”

“We have no choice but to implement these targeted measures to slow growth and bend the curve and protect our health system over the next few weeks. These measures are layered on top of Alberta’s robust public health restrictions and will buy a little more time for our vaccination program to protect more Albertans and win the race against the variants. We must respond with a firm stand against COVID-19 now so that we can enjoy a great Alberta summer,” says Kenney.

The province says to prevent rural areas with small populations from being unfairly impacted, municipalities with fewer than 250 active cases will be excluded from the threshold.

“Our staff will be reviewing these new measures to understand how they might impact city services and recreation opportunities,” The City of Red Deer said in a tweet. “We will provide an update in the coming days when we know more. Please, help us stop the spread. Help us protect our community.”