Banff 
Alberta’s largest unions and labour organizations have issued a joint statement demanding the provincial government to implement temporary circuit-breaker measures to reduce the number of rising COVID-19 induced hospitalizations in Alberta.
The circuit breaker measures proposed by the unions include:
- prohibiting large gatherings, including concerts and sporting events
- closing restaurants and bars to in-person dining
- shutting down movie theatres and casinos
- moving churches and other houses of worship online
- moving all university and colleges classes online
- closing gyms and suspending recreational sports
- moving all students in K-12 schools to online learning (as a very last resort)
Alberta Unions say only essential services should to continue to operate while these emergency measures are in place. They also want income supports to be provided to workers and businesses who are impacted.
Health restrictions now in place across the province include reduction of capacity of large venues, suspension of dancing and other interactive activities at restaurants and limit in liquor serving hours.
Alberta recently changed COVID-19 PCR test eligibility to include only those who have clinical risk factors for severe outcomes and those who live and work in high-risk settings as daily PCR testing volumes were exceeding system capacity.
Currently, there are 708 people in Alberta hospitals with COVID-19 and 80 in the ICU. Alberta hospitalization statistics do not differentiate between those admitted to hospitals/ICU due to other reasons and also have COVID-19 and those admitted due to COVID-19 complications.
According to Ontario statistics, only 54% of those in the provincial hospitals were admitted due to COVID-19, but 83% of those in ICUs are because of COVID-19 complications.
Credit: Ontario.ca
As per the Alberta Health Services data, there are 241 general adult ICU beds open in Alberta, including 68 additional surge beds. There are currently 194 patients in ICU.
Alberta ICU capacity including additional surge beds is currently at 80 per cent. Alberta in general has only 173 adult ICU beds and without the additional surge spaces, provincial ICU capacity would be at 112 per cent.
85.6% of Albertans aged 12 and above are fully vaccinated.
