Alberta's relaxed gathering restrictions will escalate Omicron risk, doctors warn
CBC
Alberta's decision to permit unvaccinated adults to attend holiday gatherings will allow the Omicron variant to spread rapidly, say doctors on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis.
"It's a big risk, and I think that it's potentially setting us up for a rapid rise in cases over the holidays like we saw about a year ago," Edmonton emergency physician Dr. Shazma Mithani said Wednesday.
"To me, there is no logical explanation as to why the province would start to allow people who are unvaccinated to gather indoors."
Earlier Wednesday, the province announced changes to gathering restrictions.
Unvaccinated adults are now permitted to attend private indoor gatherings of up to 10 adults.
Under the previous rule, people who were unvaccinated could not attend any private indoor gatherings. The new rules lift a restriction that limited indoor gatherings to people from two households.
The province also announced it will expand rapid testing while increasing the availability of vaccine booster shots.
Premier Jason Kenney defended the relaxed restrictions as a "reasonable, very modest change."
He said the increased availability of rapid testing kits will allow more families to safely gather over the holidays, and that Alberta's vaccination rate means it is well-positioned to handle the variant.
As of Wednesday, 84.9 per cent of Albertans aged 12 and older have received at least two doses of vaccine. That equates to 72.2 per cent of the overall population.
The province's approach demonstrates a failure of leadership in responding to the health crisis, said Dr. James Talbot, Alberta's former chief medical officer of health.
The changes send the wrong message about the dangers of COVID-19, especially with Omicron's ability to evade vaccines and spread rapidly, Talbot said.
"You really want people to stay the course and protect themselves over the holidays. It's not really the time to be making tweaks that suggest that this is over."
The province has not learned from its past mistakes, Talbot said.
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