Premier Jason Kenney joined the April 29th COVID-19 update unexpectedly to announced new COVID-19 measures due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the province.

“The restrictions currently in place will not bend the curve fast enough to get this third wave under control before the summer,” noted Kenney.

Effective tomorrow, there will be targeted measures for hot spots across the province including:

  • Fort McMurray
  • City of Red Deer
  • City of Grande Prairie
  • City of Calgary
  • City of Airdrie
  • Strathcona County
  • City of Lethbridge
  • City of Edmonton

“Once they come into place, these mandatory restrictions will remain in place for two weeks even if the municipality drops below the threshold at any point,” said Kenney.

In hot spot areas the following restrictions will be in effect:

Schools

  • All junior and senior high schools will be moving to online classes this Monday on May 3.  
  • K-6 students will continue in-classroom learning unless otherwise approved by Alberta Education to shift to online-learning.

Indoor fitness and sports

  • All indoor fitness activities are prohibited including the following:
  • All group physical activities, such as team sports, fitness classes and  training sessions
  • all one-on-one lessons and training activities
  • All practices, training and games
  • All youth and adult indoor group physical activities, including team sports and one-on-one training sessions, are prohibited.
  • Outdoor sport and recreation activities may continue under provincewide restrictions currently in place:
  • Outdoor team sports where two-metre distancing cannot be maintained at all times (such as basketball, volleyball, soccer, football, slo-pitch and road hockey) remain prohibited.
  • Outdoor fitness training is allowed, as are physically distanced group fitness classes with a maximum of 10 participants.
  • Outdoor group physical activity with different households must be limited to 10 people or fewer and two-metre distancing must be maintained at all times.
  • All indoor recreation facilities must close. Outdoor recreation amenities can be open to public access unless specifically closed by public health order.

Curfew

  • Where case rates are especially high, curfews may be implemented if the region or municipality requests it.

Fines

The province will continue to issue fines for non-compliance now with additional consequences.

“To ensure that Albertans take these fines seriously, we are adding additional backstops with stronger fine collection and actions with restrictions at registry services,” said Kenney.

 

April 29th new case numbers:

  • 2,048 new cases of the virus for April 28th
  • 21,385 active cases in Alberta
  • 632 people are hospitalized
  • 151 people admitted to ICUs
  • 3 new deaths reported in the last 24 hours
  • 2,075 total deaths from the virus
  • 13,460 active case variants in Alberta (1,637 in the Central Zone)
  • Variants of concern make up 62.9 per cent of active cases

Active case numbers in the Central Alberta area:

  • 157 active cases in the City of Lacombe
  • 133 active cases in the County of Lacombe
  • 722 active cases in the City of Red Deer
  • 176 active cases in the County of Red Deer
  • 148 active cases in the County of Ponoka
  • 94 active cases in the Town of Sylvan Lake
  • 71 active cases in the County of Stettler
  • 95 active cases in the County of Mountain View

**Not all cases in the Central Zone have been included.