Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health is asking businesses and patrons to be patient as a decision on stage one of the province’s relaunch strategy has yet to be made.
May 14th is the day many have been anticipating as several non-essential businesses could get the go-ahead to reopen with restrictions. Dr. Deena Hinshaw says a meeting to discuss that data is being held Tuesday night so an announcement can be made Wednesday.
“While I recognize there’s that challenge that people ideally would have a lot of lead time, it’s also important to make sure that we have the most up-to-date information about our data, about how our trends are going, so that we can take that into account as we make those decisions.”
Hinshaw explains several triggers must be met before stage one can launch. Those include a hospitalization rate that is stable or must not have increased by five per cent in the previous week, an ICU occupancy rate of less than 50 per cent of available beds, as well as no significant outbreaks spreading within communities.