Calgary doctors hold noon hour rally against lifting of COVID-19 restrictions

CALGARY -

Several dozen people gathered at the McDougall Centre in Calgary over the noon hour on Friday to voice concerns about Alberta dropping mandatory health measures for COVID-19.

A similar protest was also held at the legislature in Edmonton at noon on Friday.

The groups, which included a number of doctors, were protesting an announcement by the province on Wednesday that health measures will be further lifted starting Aug. 16, when those who contract COVID-19 will not be mandated to quarantine and masks will no longer be mandatory on public transit.

"I was super surprised," said Gosia Gasperowicz, a biologist at the University of Calgary, on her reaction to the news.

"When I heard there will be an announcement, I thought we would have more measures announced because we have now numbers shooting up, we have more than 2,000 daily cases. The speed is growing, we might have hospitals full either at the end of August or September."

Gasperowicz said the consequences will be that "COVID-19 will run rampant."

COVID-19 cases have been increasing in Alberta since the Calgary Stampede wrapped up on July 18.

According to Calgary ER physician Dr. Joe Vipond, the province's decision to lift public health measures is irresponsible. 

"It’s insane, it’s this incredible experiment of how many people we can get sick," he said. . 

Vipond has been voicing his frustration on Twitter as well.

Nearly 65 per cent of Albertans ages 12 and up have received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Provincial officials have said the decision to remove restrictions was based on data received from Alberta’s public health response. 

Saskatchewan repealed restrictions on July 11 after reaching a predetermined amount of vaccinations. That province has encouraged Alberta to follow suit and remove restrictions.

This is a developing story and will be updated throughout the day...