By Troy Gillard

despite calls for regional strategy...

Alberta sticking with provincial approach to public health restrictions

Feb 11, 2021 | 4:45 PM

Alberta’s chief medical officer of health says despite growing calls for a regional approach to lifting public health restrictions, the province will move forward on a provincial basis.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw says every health zone in the province remains above the 50 cases per 100,000 threshold the province used when navigating its relaunch last summer.

“While some zones may have less cases than others, all zones continue to have a level of cases that continues to be concerning and our towns and cities are all interconnected,” Hinshaw said Thursday.

“We know that Albertans from home to work sometimes across long distances. We know that people shop in nearby cities even if they live in small towns and we know that that level of interconnectedness can cause rapid spread of the virus when one person is infected and it can quickly spread to others.”

Earlier on Thursday, Premier Jason Kenney said during a news conference he hadn’t ruled out the possibility of a regional approach to restrictions, but not right now.

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“We’ve always said that we are open to taking COVID policy on a regional basis and we have at various points of the pandemic,” Kenney said. “We’re not close enough to that lower level of spread to take a faster approach to relaxation in any region.”

Kenney said he understands the level of frustration felt by many Albertans over restrictions, especially those living in rural areas where case numbers are lower.

“Folks need to understand that transmission can happen very fast and we have to look at the broader trends, yes in the region but also the whole province,” he cautioned.

“We’ve made huge progress over the last 10 weeks or so and if we continue in the right direction, hopefully, some regions will be able to advance faster in opening the restrictions that exist.”

Meantime, Alberta will be suspending its COVID-19 testing pilot project at the Calgary International Airport once new federal requirements for international travellers come into effect.

“In the coming weeks, all travellers arriving at the airport from outside of Canada will be required to undergo a COVID-19 test on entry at the border and be required to quarantine at a federally designated hotel,” Hinshaw said, adding that all international travellers will need to comply with the federal requirements on testing and quarantine.

Hinshaw said labs in Alberta are well-positioned for this the new federal testing requirements thanks to the testing processes already in place through the border pilot.

Since November more than 49,000 tests were conducted as part of the border pilot and many of the positive tests were in asymptomatic individuals. Positive cases from the project were also screened for COVID-19 variants, helping prevent them from spreading widely, said Hinshaw.

Under new federal rules, on Feb. 15 travellers will need to show proof of a negative PCR completed in the U.S in the previous 72 hours.

The Alberta pilot project at the Coutts border crossing will continue until a decision is made by the federal government on potential additional restrictions at land border crossings.

(With file from Chris Brown – CHAT News Today)