Is Alberta's newest plan to lift COVID restrictions another 'open for summer'?

When Premier Jason Kenney announced last week that almost all COVID-19 restrictions will be coming to an end, it was a moment of déjà vu for many Albertans.

Last summer was supposed to be the best summer ever, as Kenney predicted in the spring of 2021.

But just months after lifting virtually all public health restrictions, Alberta was struck by the deadly fourth wave of COVID-19, driven by the Delta variant.

After a couple of sunny months free from restrictions, people were dying from COVID in numbers not seen since the second wave, and Albertans were told to wear masks and limit their gatherings.

As March approaches, Alberta's government is set to once again drop most of its COVID rules.

The province's version of a vaccine passport, introduced last fall as COVID once again pushed the limits of the province's health system, has already been scrapped.

Kenney admits the province didn't have enough vaccine coverage for the Delta wave.

Many more Albertans are now immunized, but the province still trails every other province when it comes to full vaccination.

Alberta's "open for summer" reopening required just 70 per cent of Albertans aged 12 and over to have had a first dose of vaccine, but today about 90 per cent of that demographic has had at least one dose, while 86.3 per cent have had two. Immunity from prior infection is also higher than ever before, given the widespread transmission of Omicron. 

New treatments are also available, including the antiviral treatment Paxlovid and monoclonal antibody treatment, and the province has worked to create additional health-care capacity. 

But there are also far more people with COVID right now than there were last summer, even if current numbers of new cases and hospital admissions are dropping.

In late June and early July, the province's daily new cases were in the dozens, but even with limited access to PCR testing the province is now routinely reporting more than 1,300 cases a day. Actual case numbers are estimated to be many times higher because of the restricted access to PCR tests.

The number of people in hospital with COVID is also significantly higher than it was last summer, and not far from the province's pandemic peak. In the province's latest update Friday, there were 1,566 COVID-positive patients in hospital, not too far removed from the all-time high of 1,675 on Feb. 1.

At Tuesday's news conference, the premier's message was clear: it's time to start living with the virus.