'No margin for error': Albertans look for immediate impact from restrictions as COVID-19 cases climb
As Alberta's latest round of COVID-19 health measures take hold, experts are predicting a dicey stretch — but there is reason to believe case numbers could soon decrease.
The number of daily new cases reported has been above 1,300 for two and a half weeks, but the rolling average is somewhat levelling off.
Infectious disease expert Dr. Craig Jenne says he's hoping new rules around masking and mandatory vaccination will make an even bigger dent on the figures.
"We simply have no margin for error," he said. "There's no room, no care left. We need to make sure these numbers stop rising and begin to decline rapidly."
The province's health care system has taken a major hit in September.
COVID-19 patients are flooding the facilities and surge capacity is quickly filling.
Help is on the way from Ottawa, but even as case numbers climb, Albertans will likely still be facing another week of growing hospital admissions.
Hospitalizations are a lagging indicator, which means they'll take longer to be impacted by the new restrictions. But, in other jurisdictions, similar health measures were able to bring hospital admissions and ICU numbers to a manageable level.
In British Columbia, rapidly-climbing cases were all but levelled out by a strict vaccine passport mandate.
Alberta's newest round of rules are less stringent, but experts believe they'll still have an effect on what is becoming a dire situation.
"(Alberta's) rate of growth has declined to, instead of five or six per cent a day, down to two per cent a day," said Dean Karlen of the B.C. Modelling Group.
"So that's in the right direction. In British Columbia, we were growing at two per cent a day about a month ago. Now we're down to zero."
Still, Jenne says there's no reason to become complacent.
"We're hoping that this means we're starting to plateau," he told CTV News. "But this plateau is still unmanageably high."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
"It's a bit of a complicated pattern; we've got a lot going on," said Jennifer Smith of the Meteorological Service of Canada in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Wednesday. "[As is] typical with weather, all of these things are related."
Boeing's financial woes continue, while families of crash victims urge U.S. to prosecute the company
Boeing said Wednesday that it lost US$355 million on falling revenue in the first quarter, another sign of the crisis gripping the aircraft manufacturer as it faces increasing scrutiny over the safety of its planes and accusations of shoddy work from a growing number of whistleblowers.
Police tangle with students in Texas and California as wave of campus protest against Gaza war grows
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.