Boucher said that there is a finite amount of space to care for people in the province and that if the fourth wave continues to progress as it is, front-line physicians could soon face a 'nightmare scenario'
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The head of the Alberta Medical Association is calling on the province to add new public health measures to curb the rising spread of COVID-19 as ICU admissions hit another record high Tuesday.
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Dr. Paul Boucher, president of the AMA, released a statement Tuesday calling on Health Minister Tyler Shandro to reinstate stricter measures to stop the fourth wave of COVID-19 in Alberta. Speaking to Postmedia, Boucher said all options need to be looked at, from vaccine passports to tight lockdowns seen earlier in the pandemic.
“If we keep down this road we’re going to end up in a situation that is going to bring a lot of pain to a lot of people, and more pain, I think, then more strict public health measures,” said Boucher.
Boucher said he released his statement after waiting to see what effect new restrictions introduced on Sept. 3 would have.
Shandro announced a new mandatory mask mandate in all indoor public spaces at that time. He also announced all licensed establishments would have to stop selling alcohol at 10 p.m. but they would be able to remain open beyond that curfew.
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Unvaccinated Albertans were asked to limit their social interactions to cohorts of two families with fewer than 10 people.
In his statement Tuesday, Boucher said it is unlikely those measures will have a profound enough effect on the spread of COVID-19.
Requests for comment from the minister’s office were not returned Tuesday.
Daily case numbers, hospitalizations and intensive-care admissions have continued to rise since the Sept. 3 announcement. The province reported 1,434 new cases on Tuesday, bringing the total active infections in Alberta to 18,265.
Nine new deaths were reported.
There are 822 patients being treated for COVID-19 in hospital, including a record-high 212 in intensive care. There were 182 COVID patients in ICU beds at the peak of the third wave.
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Boucher said there is a finite amount of space to care for people in the province and that if the fourth wave continues to progress as it is, front-line physicians could soon face a “nightmare scenario.”
“That’s a position where we can’t offer care to everyone that might benefit from it, and so then we’re stuck, forced, you know, to make decisions about who should have care,” said Boucher.
Alberta’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw tweeted Tuesday that 87 per cent of people in ICU are unvaccinated while five per cent are partially vaccinated. Eight per cent of those patients are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
There are 2,676,327 people in Alberta who have received two doses of vaccine. There are approximately 1,442,001 people who are unvaccinated.
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A video posted online of Hinshaw speaking to primary care doctors showed her saying that the province’s reopening plan that saw most major restrictions lifted on July 1 was responsible for the current trajectory of COVID-19 cases. She said she feels responsible for creating a narrative that made it hard to reimplement health restrictions.
The video has since been made private but recordings of the panel have been reposted.
“I feel very responsible for the narrative that has made it more complicated to try to (put) additional public health measures in place because, whether or not it was my intention, what was heard at the end of July was COVID’s over, we can walk away and ignore it,” Hinshaw said in the video.
Meanwhile, the province announced Tuesday that Albertans will be able to receive a printable, convenient-sized proof of vaccination through their MyHealth Records beginning Thursday. There is work underway to make vaccination records available through a QR code.
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People flooded to the online portal after the announcement, causing delays for people trying to access their records. Just before 4:30 p.m. there was an hour-long wait, with more than 30,000 people waiting for access.
Alberta Health tweeted a reminder that proof of vaccination would not be available until Thursday and asked anyone who does not have an immediate need to access their health records to log in after 7 p.m.
Government spokesman Harrison Fleming said Alberta’s COVID-19 committee was meeting Tuesday, with a caucus meeting also scheduled.
— With files from The Canadian Press
Calls for more restrictions as 212 people in Alberta ICUs with COVID - Calgary Herald
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