Check against delivery.
Thank you, Tom, and good afternoon everyone.
I want to begin by clarifying something I said yesterday about quarantine periods for household contacts of variant cases.
A quarantine period for any close contact is 14 days after the last exposure to an infectious case. This has not changed for contacts of variants of concern.
What has changed and what is different is how effective home isolation is.
Our typical practice for usual cases is that isolation at home is acceptable when a COVID case reports that they have a separate bathroom and bedroom in the house, and that they could stay there for the full 10-day period of their isolation while they are infectious.
Anyone who lives in the same house or household as these individuals would start their 14-day quarantine on the day that the positive case enters isolation in the separate part of that location.
That is the practice that has been in place for many months, but variants are far more contagious.
As a result, we believe that the chances of this home isolation of cases in being effective is lower.
That is why we are now saying that, if the case remains at home for the full time they are considered infectious, household contacts are considered to be exposed each day that they share that household.
That means that a 14-day quarantine for anyone in the household starts on the last day that the positive case spends in the home while infectious.
If the variant case leaves to an isolation hotel or another location where they are not living with others to complete their isolation, the 14 days for contacts starts at that point in time.
If the variant case and their contacts all stay in the same home for the full 10-day isolation period of the case, then the 14-day quarantine for the contacts starts after those 10 days are finished.
When I mentioned yesterday that a maximum quarantine period for household contacts of variant cases could be up to 24 days, what I meant is that the combination of the 10 days the case is infectious, plus the quarantine period of 14 days for contacts would be the maximum potential required period for contacts to remain in the home.
I am sorry for any confusion this may have caused.
We are updating our website and will be creating new materials to help assist anyone who has questions about this current policy.
Turning to vaccines, we have now administered 109,341 doses of vaccine in the province, and almost 19,000 Albertans have now been fully immunized with two doses.
I have recently heard some questions about a small number of people who may have inadvertently skipped the line and received the vaccine before they were eligible.
This is an issue of public trust, so I think it is important to address it here.
Public Health officials have determined the prioritization list based on risk and science.
Any situation where individuals attempt to access vaccine before they are eligible undermines that trust.
The allegations that have been made are unfortunate and it is understandable why many would be upset.
That being said, overwhelmingly, the prioritization list has been followed carefully across Alberta.
There may have been confusion about eligibility of other first responders when paramedics were added to the list, and this may have contributed to an error.
Alberta Health Services has clarified with EMS providers who is eligible for the vaccine at this time.
I know that many, many Albertans would love to be able to access the vaccine right now and I thank everyone for waiting their turn.
I am grateful for the way that Albertans have recognized that we are receiving very limited doses of the vaccine right now, and that they have supported our focus on starting with those who have the highest risk of severe outcomes.
We will take situations like this as a learning opportunity, and strive for clarity of definitions of who is included in the sequencing of vaccine eligibility going forward.
As soon as the supply increases, we will be able to start offering more first doses and expanding eligibility in the weeks and months ahead.
Turning to today’s numbers, over the last 24 hours, we have identified 259 new cases of COVID-19, and completed more than 6,800 tests.
Our positivity rate currently stands at about 3.5%.
There are currently active alerts or outbreaks in 307 schools, or about 13% of schools in the province.
Currently these schools have a combined total of 746 cases.
Overall, our school aged new daily case numbers are about at the level they were at in October, and they continue to trend downwards.
There are 539 people in hospital, including 94 in the ICU.
Sadly, I must announce that 11 new deaths were reported to Alberta Health in the last 24 hours.
I know the pandemic makes it difficult to grieve and come together like we are used to doing, but there are safe ways to get the support you need to help you through this challenging time.
I encourage anyone grieving a loved one to reach out for help if they need it.
With respect to Alberta cases of variants of concern, I know that many have questions about the variant cases identified as linked to a daycare yesterday.
Health officials continue to reach out to all families and staff affected by this outbreak to ensure that everyone has the supports they need to isolate or quarantine safely.
We will release the zone name once this notification has been completed.
Today, I would like to talk briefly about the path forward that we are taking in this province.
I know that many Albertans have strong feelings about how restrictions are being eased, with some feeling that we are moving too slowly and others who think we are going too fast.
Both of these perspectives are understandable, and, as I have often said, there is no one right way to navigate this pandemic.
However, I would like to put our current situation in context to help explain why we are not approaching relaunch like we did in the spring, and instead are pursuing a more cautious approach.
Currently, there are 539 people in hospital.
This is down from the high of 938 on December 30th.
This is a very encouraging trend, and pressure is easing on the health system that we all rely on.
At the same time, our numbers remain far higher than they were in the spring.
When we started our first relaunch on May 14th, there were 57 people in hospital – a tenth of the total that we have today.
Similarly, we now have 6,599 active cases.
This is less than one-third of our peak of 21,231 active cases on December 13th, and all Albertans should be proud of that fact.
But, once again, it’s also important to remember that when we relaunched in the spring, there were less than 1,000 active cases in the community, meaning that there are almost 7 times the active cases today that there were at that time.
To be clear: our province has made remarkable progress over these last two months.
We have bent the curve and every Albertan can be proud of that.
I know that these gains have required deep sacrifices from many business owners and other Albertans.
At the same time, it is important that Albertans understand we are at a very different place than we were at in May.
Our caseload is higher, our hospitalizations are higher and the emergence of new variants poses a threat that could cause cases to spike again if we are not careful.
That is why we are not relaxing measures for a large number of sectors all at once, like we did in the spring.
It is also why we are moving slowly with restaurants, fitness and those sectors that will see some restrictions ease on Monday.
It’s important that we take a slow, phased approach to ensure we aren’t doing too much too fast, especially as we learn more about the new variants of COVID-19 and work to prevent their spread in Alberta.
By also closely watching our leading indicators of positivity rate, new case numbers, and growth rate we will be able to see if the tide is turning and if we need to pause moving to the next step.
This approach should limit the need to jump back and forth between easing and tightening of restrictions which I know is challenging for everyone, especially those whose businesses and pay cheques are affected.
I know that we would all like to get back to a world that looks closer to the way it did before. We all want businesses, sports teams and cultural activities open and available for everyone to enjoy.
The best way to make that happen is for all of us to be extra serious about following the guidance and measures in place, and to work extra hard to prevent this virus from spreading.
Our previous success in bending the curve doesn’t guarantee it will happen again.
Our actions now will help determine how fast we can proceed and whether we can continue bringing our numbers down and moving safely forward.
Thank you and I’m happy to take questions.