Doctor calls for increased COVID-19 measures in Alberta to avoid past mistakes
Premier Jason Kenney says he is supporting the federal government’s decision to ban all foreign nationals from entering Canada from several southern African countries but a prominent emergency room doctor says Alberta should take additional steps.
In a tweet, the premier says he agrees with the new restrictions and that Canada must not repeat the "mistake of its open border policy at the start of the pandemic."
Dr. Joe Vipond, a Calgary emergency room doctor, says that more needs to be done at a provincial level as the variant has already spread outside of South Africa. He's encouraging the provincial government to put its own travel restrictions in place.
"Certainly what was done in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and P.E.I. in the past, works," said Vipond.
During previous waves of the pandemic, travellers to Atlantic Canada were required to quarantine for two weeks and take rapid tests.
Vipond adds that he doesn't believe Alberta's government "has the stomach" to enforce interprovincial travel restrictions, but that they would help prevent the new variant from spreading into the province.
The announcement of the new variant comes as the province's COVID-19 case counts have started to rise.
Vipond says the restrictions that have been in place since mid-September have done a good job at preventing spread, but the return of colder weather has more people gathering indoors and case numbers are increasing week-over-week.
"That’s worrisome, because it means the policies that we have in place are not currently working," explained Vipond. "It’s not that the government is doing anything wrong, it’s just that we aren’t doing enough for the situation we’re in now."
Vipond says to get our current situation under control, more measures should be brought into place. He suggests making masks mandatory in schools at all times, and making rapid testing readily available to the general public.
"All those mitigation measures that work for old things, including ventilation and masks, have worked in the past and should work for the new variant. Until we know more about Omicron, we should continue to try and vaccinate as many people as possible, and increase public health measures to try and reduce virus spread."
Correction
The original headline of this story indicated that Dr. Joe Vipond had called for the introduction of travel restrictions between provinces. Dr. Vipond did not make such a claim and the headline has since been corrected.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Economists predict a 'mild recession,' but what would that look like in Canada?
With inflation on the rise and central banks poised to increase rates, CTVNews.ca speaks with experts on whether Canada will experience a recession, and if so, what it would look like.

'We've been abandoned': Man dies in B.C. town waiting for health care near ambulance station
For the second time in less than a month, a resident of Ashcroft, B.C., died while waiting for health care after having a heart attack mere metres from a local ambulance station.
'I have to fight for myself': Quadriplegic man says N.S. government told him to live in a hospital
A diving accident at 14-years-old left Brian Parker paralyzed from the chest down. Now at age 49, he's without the person who was caring for him full-time until just last week, after his 68-year-old mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Minister asks Canadians not to fake travel plans to skip passport application lines
Minister of Families, Children and Social Development of Canada Karina Gould is discouraging people from making fake travel plans just to skip the line of those waiting for passports.
Canadian home sales fall for 5th month in a row, down 29 per cent from last July
Canada's average resale home price fell 4.5% from a year ago in July and was down 5.4% on the month as buyers continued to sit on the sidelines amid rising borrowing costs.
Wet'suwet'en pipeline protest blocks Vancouver traffic
A large rally planned in Vancouver to protest the Coastal GasLink pipeline in northern B.C. blocked traffic Monday morning.
Thousands of Afghans who helped Canada trapped in Afghanistan, struggling to leave
The federal government needs to do more to help thousands of Afghans who assisted Canadian Forces but remain trapped in Afghanistan a year after the Taliban seized Kabul, aid groups and opposition parties say.
New COVID-19 booster targeting Omicron, original variants approved in U.K.
British drug regulators have become the first in the world to authorize an updated version of Moderna's coronavirus vaccine that aims to protect against the original virus and the omicron variant.
Pfizer CEO tests positive for COVID-19, has mild symptoms
The top executive at Pfizer, a leading producer of COVID-19 vaccines, has tested positive for the virus and says he is experiencing very mild symptoms.