WESTLOCK — Starting tomorrow, restaurants and pubs will have to stop serving liquor by 10 p.m. and close by 11 p.m. for the next two weeks.
Wedding and funeral services will also be restricted to 50 people, and faith-based gatherings will be limited to a third of the building’s capacity, also for the Nov. 13-27 period.
The new requirements are part of a series of measures announced today for communities where enhanced measures are in place. The Westlock area is one of them, where cases now sit at 17 active of 50 recorded since the start of the pandemic.
Since the last update of geospatial data Nov. 9, four people have tested positive in the area, which includes Westlock County, the Town of Westlock and the Village of Clyde. During that update, Clyde CAO Ron Cust confirmed some of those cases are in the village.
Limit social gatherings
Premier Jason Kenney, who is self-isolating after he came into close contact with a positive COVID-19 case on Monday and is asymptomatic, also announced that the voluntary measures which restrict social gatherings inside the home and outside the community now apply to enhanced areas.
“This must be taken seriously. We are putting our faith in the good judgment of Albertans, which is why these measures are voluntary right now. No one wants to have a government tell us how many people we can have in our homes. But the alternative to voluntary action by Albertans is mandatory restrictions like in most other places, backed by fines,” Kenney said.
This is a measure first adopted for Edmonton and Calgary last week, now expanded to all purple areas on the map here — a breakdown of the measures specific to each area is included.
Forty per cent of the transmission, he said, happens at home or in social gatherings.
“I don’t think it’s unreasonable for people to suspend these kinds of gatherings for the time being.”
The three-cohort limit — including childcare — has also been extended to areas under enhanced status, and the 15-person limit per social gathering still stands.
The province continues to encourage mask-wearing in the workplace, but has added today that employers should consider reducing the number of employees in the office at one time.
At this time, Barrhead and Athabasca are not on the enhanced list; there are five active cases in Barrhead and four in Athabasca.
More measures for larger places
In the Edmonton and Calgary areas, Fort McMurray, Grande Prairie, Lethbridge and Red Deer, indoor fitness classes, team sports and group performing activities like singing and dancing will be banned for two weeks starting tomorrow.
The measures don’t apply to outdoor sports, or professional, junior and university sport, nor do they apply to gyms with individual equipment. Professional performance venues are also excluded. Both categories, Kenney said, have additional measures in place that they must follow.
Kenney said several large outbreaks were linked to group fitness and sports. It’s not the case for group performance, but the restrictions still apply. He encouraged Albertans to participate in outdoor or individual sports instead.
Health care system in jeopardy
In the last 24 hours, 860 new cases were identified and over 15,000 people were tested. Currently, there are 8,305 active cases in the province. Hospitalizations have reached 225, with 51 people in ICU.
In terms of current capacity, 73 per cent of COVID-19 ICU beds across the province are being used: “It’s already impacting our health care system,” said health minister Tyler Shandro.
“Now is the time to reduce the number of cohorts we are in and make changes to our lives to make it less likely that we will be exposed to COVID-19 or pass the virus to others. We are all in this together and we must face this challenge together,” said Alberta’s chief medical officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw.
She warned that in rural zones, daily hospital growth sits at a combined seven per cent over the past two weeks; the threshold is five per cent.
Shandro announced that Alberta Health Services posted 425 new contact tracer jobs. They aim to increase the number of contact tracers from 800 to 1,100 within a few weeks.
A new online portal is also available starting today, which would send automated and anonymous text messages to close contacts of positive tests. It’s meant to “increase capacity and speed,” said Hinshaw.
Since yesterday, 10 more people have passed away from COVID-19. The death toll in Alberta has reached 393.
