Photo: Chris Schwarz / Government of Alberta

By Shaun Penner

Isolation, testing remain

Alberta pausing shift in COVID-19 measures for six weeks

Aug 13, 2021 | 10:28 AM

This story has been updated from its original version.

Alberta will not be moving away from symptomatic testing for COVID-19, mandatory isolation for positive cases and contact tracing on August 16 as originally planned.

On Friday, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw announced the province would be pausing its planned transition to bring COVID-19 in line with other respiratory viruses for at least six weeks, meaning such measures would remain in place until at least September 27.

She said this was notably due to hospitalizations being around 62 per cent higher at this time than projected back on July 29, when the decision to shift the province’s COVID-19 response was first announced.

As of the end of day on Wednesday night, 146 Albertans were in hospital with COVID-19,.

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“Our initial modelling showed that at this time, we would expect to have about 90 total cases in hospital,” Hinshaw said.

“To be clear, there is no issue with hospital capacity. Anyone who needs treatment will be able to get it.”

With that transition paused, that means the following measures will remain in place until September 27:

• Mandatory masking orders in publicly accessible transit, taxis and ride-shares.
• Mandatory isolation for 10 days for those with COVID-19 symptoms or a positive test result.
• Testing at assessment centres for any symptomatic individual.

Hinshaw added that the decision to hold firm on current COVID-19 protocols comes after “closely monitoring” data from around the world.

She notes that while the more contagious Delta variant was leading to more hospitalizations in youth (who currently cannot be vaccinated against COVID-19) in parts of the United States, that same impact was not being felt in the United Kingdom.

“(In the UK), children under 15 remained the lowest risk of severe outcomes from infection,” said Hinshaw.

Hinshaw noted that since July 1, seven Albertans under the age of 18 have been hospitalized with COVID-19.

She said while there is no exact answer as to why those two jurisdictions are seeing different outcomes, Hinshaw says she and her team would like to continue to closely monitor the situation in Alberta.

“I want to further monitor these trends. I do not share this information to cause alarm,” said Hinshaw.

“We are not going backwards. We are pausing to monitor and assess before taking a next step forward.”

Back to School Guidance

Hinshaw and Education Minister Adriana LaGrange also addressed guidance for back-to-school, with Hinshaw noting that masks will not be made mandatory in Alberta schools this year.

However, it was noted that individual school divisions can make their own decisions as they see fit. Masks will be mandatory on school buses until at least September 27.

Cohorting and distancing will also not be required by the province unless there is an outbreak, LaGrange added. However, each school division can make that choice to do so on its own.

Voluntary vaccination in schools will also begin being offered on September 7 for students and staff. Parental consent will be required

“Thanks to the power of vaccines, I’m pleased that students can return to a normal school year in September,” says LaGrange.

“The safety of students and staff remains our number one priority, and we have a detailed plan that includes contingency scenarios for continuing student learning if there is a significant change in the COVID-19 situation.”

Both Hinshaw and LaGrange urged all eligible Albertans to get vaccinated as soon as possible if they have not already done so.

The province also laid out a back-to-school tool kit for parents, which can be found here.