Alberta dropped almost all public health restrictions Tuesday afternoon.
The province is moving to step two of reopening, which includes the end of limits on social gatherings, capacity limits for large venues, remaining school requirements, screening youth for activities, and the mandatory work-from-home order.
The provincial public masking requirements have also ended, except for in high-risk settings such as Alberta Health Services (AHS) facilities, continuing care facilities, and on public transit.
Albertans may wish to consider individual risk factors and choose to wear masks in other public indoor settings, a government media release said.
“I am proud of our province and its people for reaching this milestone. The majority of Albertans came together to keep everyone safe, and this is the result we were working towards. The pressure on our healthcare system and the people it serves is lessening and we can now move forward. As we safely get our lives back to normal, we can move forward toward Alberta’s great economic recovery,” Premier Jason Kenney said in the release.
“Thanks to the vaccination uptake in the province and the commitment of millions of Albertans these past two years, we are closing in on normal life. As we shift to an endemic response, I am confident that we can take the lessons we have learned through this pandemic to build an even more robust healthcare system for our province’s future,” minister of health Jason Copping said.
The province announced on Feb. 26, as COVID-19 hospitalizations continued to decrease, and pressures on the healthcare system continued to decrease, the province would begin step two of getting back to normal on March 1.
“Since step one began on Feb. 8, COVID-19 positivity rates in the province have continued to decline. Hospitalizations in intensive and non-intensive care have also steadily declined and are at the lowest levels since Jan. 22,” the release said.
“Over the last three weeks, cases and hospitalizations have continued to drop as we have started lifting restrictions. This promising trend puts Alberta in a position to safely remove the majority of remaining public health measures. This is a good day for Albertans as we get another step closer to getting back to normal,” Kenney said.
“I am pleased to see that the stress on our healthcare system continues to lessen. Not only does this allow us to ease more public health measures, but it also reduces the pressure and strain on our dedicated healthcare workers who have worked tirelessly through the pandemic to provide expert care to Albertans,” Copping said.
The mandatory isolation of COVID-19 symptoms or a positive test result still remains in place, with an isolation period of five days at home, and five days of continued masking for fully vaccinated Albertans, or 10 days for partially and unvaccinated Albertans.
Step three will be determined based on hospitalization rates continuing to decrease and will include removing COVID-specific measures in continuing care, AHS facilities, and public transit, and the mandatory isolation period will become a recommendation only.
