CALGARY (660 NEWS) – Is Alberta ready to move into phase three of its reopening plan?
The province went into the second phase on Mar. 1, meaning we could move forward as early as Monday.
However, some health and disease experts say this might not be the best course of action to take.
Infectious disease expert Craig Jenne says positivity rate & variant cases make him hesitant to say it's safe to move forward. "I do think we need to have a better understanding why the variant cases appear to be rising week after week before we can safely move to a phase 3."
— Saif Kaisar (@StaySaif) March 17, 2021
Craig Jenne is an infectious disease expert at the University of Calgary and said we can’t safely move into the next phase until we have a better understanding of why variant cases are rising week after week.
“Positivity numbers and more importantly the number of variant cases in the province, really make me hesitant to say that we are safe to move to a phase three.”
WATCH: Province easing restrictions as case numbers steady
Emergency room physician Dr. Joe Vipond agrees, adding the province should move in the other direction and locking more things down instead of reopening.
“Shutdowns, lockdowns are inevitable once we let things get out of hand. It seems irresponsible to me to be relaxing restrictions.”
Under step three of the relaunch plan, the province could relax restrictions on adult team sports and youth recreation while also indoor social gatherings with some restrictions in place.
Casinos, bingo halls and racing centres could also reopen while capacity limits could be increased for places of worship.
The province has set a benchmark for COVID-19 hospitalizations to be below 300 before moving to step three. As of Tuesday, there are 260 Albertans in hospital with the virus.
