Canada must 'learn from' the pandemic crisis in parts of the West, Tam says
CBC
Canada's chief public health officer says other provinces need to learn from the poor pandemic example being set by Alberta and Saskatchewan if they want to avoid the crisis now afflicting health services in those provinces.
"Don't be complacent," Theresa Tam said at this morning's media briefing. "We have to be highly vigilant on this virus. When you see it accelerating, act fast because, I think, we have to learn from the situation in Alberta and also in Saskatchewan at the moment."
On Thursday, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney re-introduced strict and sweeping measures to combat the spread of COVID-19 — including a new requirement that people provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test to gain entry to some businesses and social events.
Alberta has more than 18,000 active COVID-19 cases — the most of any province right now. There were 877 people in the province's hospital with the illness on Wednesday, 218 of them in intensive care. Ontario, with a population more than three times Alberta's, had 346 in hospital, with 188 in intensive care.
"It is now clear that we were wrong, and for that I apologize," Kenney said in announcing the new measures.
Tam said that, despite the fact that a large majority of Canadians are vaccinated, there are still seven million Canadians who have not been vaccinated and intensive care units in areas where vaccination rates are low are filling up with people in their 40s and 50s.
"When enough people are infected, even rarer events, in younger adults for example, are going to become common," she said.
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