'Omicron is not the final variant': Some front line workers cautious over dropping COVID-19 rules

AHS says it expects all the workers that it put on leave without pay for not being fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to return by March 31.

Approximately 750 Alberta Health Services' employees, who are on leave without pay because of their choice not to be vaccinated against COVID-19, will be allowed back to work by the end of this month.

The decision, made on Tuesday, means that AHS will be contacting all those workers to ask them to return to the job.

Health Minister Jason Copping said with Omicron slowing down and hospitalizations dropping, it was time to drop the policy that required all health-care workers to be fully vaccinated.

The regular rapid testing procedures will also be scrapped.

"When this immunization policy was implemented late last year, it was to protect patients, health-care workers and the public during a time of record transmission and an incredibly severe wave of Delta," Copping told a media conference Tuesday.

"Fortunately, now we are on the tail end of the Omicron wave and with our high vaccination rate, we're in a very different situation."

Some front line workers say they're anxious about the change of plans, suggesting it could be too risky even at this stage.

"It's of course too soon," said Dr. Darren Markland, an intensive care physician in Edmonton.

"Omicron is not the final variant. I'm hoping it is, my heart says it wants it to be, but my brain says, 'be careful.'"

AHS told CTV News that it's too soon to say if any of the unvaccinated workers will choose not to return to work at all.

When it comes to new hires, the agency has had a vaccination policy in place since last November, mandating that all employees must be fully vaccinated.

According to AHS, 97.7 per cent of full-time and part-time employees at AHS are fully immunized.