EDMONTON — With recent modelling projections showing Alberta is successfully battling the spread of COVID-19, Premier Jason Kenney will provide details on the strategy to relaunch the province’s economy Thursday.
Kenney will speak at the usual 3:30 p.m. update held by Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health.
“We’ll announce measures to move toward more economic and social activity,” Kenney said earlier this week. “It has to be done in a measured way. To quote [Saskatchewan] Premier Moe, ‘It’s going to be more like a dimmer switch than an on-off switch.'”
Kenney made the comments Tuesday, the same day he revealed new modelling projections that showed efforts to curb the peak of the virus were working.
“The number of Albertans hospitalized and admitted to intensive care is well below what modeling originally projected,” he said.
The new probable projections suggest 596 people will be hospitalized at the peak of the virus, down from 818 people estimated in initial projections released at the start of the month. The new scenario also estimates 190 people will need critical care at the peak.
So far, 209 people have been hospitalized and 49 have been admitted to ICUs in Alberta.
Kenney said the government will be closely monitoring the number of hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions, as well as the growth rate of COVID-19 cases including confirmed cases as a percentage of testing, to guide the relaunch strategy.
On Wednesday, the province confirmed seven additional deaths and 315 more COVID-19 cases, driving the provincial death toll to 87 people and the case count to 5,165.
Watch the 3:30 p.m. news conference live on CTVNewsEdmonton.ca.
