On May 4, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced additional COVID-19 restrictions to stop the spike in the province and protect the health system.
The new measures apply to all Albertans, businesses, organizations, and service providers in municipalities or areas with more than 50 cases per 100,000 people and with 30 or more active cases.
“This is a last resort and a necessary step. With cases continuing to rise, we have no choice but to take serious action now or jeopardize putting the health system at risk. If we don’t do this now, if this doesn’t work, then we’ll need a much longer list of restrictions, which no Albertan wants to see. The best way to get out of this is for all Albertans to follow these new measures and get vaccinated when it’s their turn,” Kenney said.
Effective May 5, all outside social gatherings were limited to no more than five people, all indoor fitness must close, no more than 10 people could attend funeral services, retail services must limit customer capacity to 10 per cent of fire code occupancy, all post-secondary learning shifted to online learning, faith services were limited to 15 people for in-person attendance, and working from home remained mandatory unless the employer requires the employee’s physical presence to operate effectively.
Any workplace, except work camps and essential and critical services, with transmission of three or more cases, will be required by health officials to close for 10 days.
Effective May 7, all kindergarten to Grade 12 students will temporarily shift to at-home learning. Students will return to in-class learning on May 25.
In-person dining on patios is prohibited starting on May 9, while hair salons, barbers, nail salons, estheticians, tattoos and piercing, must close.
All outdoor sports and recreation are now prohibited except with members of the same household or if living alone, two close contacts.
All other public health measures remain in place, including masking and physical distancing requirements.
“I know Albertans, even those who have carefully followed the health guidance and worked to keep not only themselves but their fellow Albertans safe, are tired. But if we can muster the strength to make it through these next few weeks, we will allow our vaccination program a chance to protect more Albertans, and in end, we will get COVID-19 under control in Alberta,” said the Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw.
To reinforce the importance of following public health orders and the consequences of not doing so, fines will double to $2,000 for Public Health Act violations.
“These measures are tough but have proven to work. Rising cases and hospitalizations mean we must take stricter measures in order to protect capacity in our health system. These mandatory new health measures are some of the strictest we’ve implemented, but they are absolutely critical to the future of our province,” said Minister of Health, Tyler Shandro.
