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Albertans who can’t wear a mask for medical reasons will now need a doctor’s note to prove it.
Chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said at a Thursday COVID-19 update Albertans who can’t follow the province’s mandatory mask rules for specific health reasons will need to get a note from a health professional like a doctor, nurse practitioner, physician or psychologist, effective immediately.
Hinshaw said this will make it easier to enforce public health orders as some have been using exemptions as a “loophole” to get around the rules.
“This letter is important to have, especially if requested by enforcement officials for not complying with the legal requirement to wear a mask in indoor public spaces,” she said.
“This change is not meant to punish people unfairly — it’s meant to ensure anyone who is capable of wearing a mask complies with this important public health measure intended to keep us all safe, which is especially important during this third wave.”
Eligible conditions for not wearing a mask include sensory processing disorders, developmental delay or cognitive impairment, mental illness disorders, facial trauma or recent mouth or jaw surgery, contact dermatitis or allergic reactions to masks, or serious breathing problems.
Those who cannot put on and remove a mask are also exempt.
1,588 cases, 2 million jabs
On Thursday, the province reported 1,558 new cases after 15,266 tests, a positivity rate of about 10.2 per cent.
There were 722 people in hospital, including 177 in ICU. Hospitalizations and ICU admissions have nearly doubled in the last month.
Alberta has 24,586 active cases and the highest active case rate of any province across the country. There are 11,584 and 5,606 active cases in the Calgary and Edmonton zones, respectively.
Vaccinations also passed 2 million Thursday.
Hinshaw also said she expects second doses will begin in early June provided supplies keep up.
At her last update, Hinshaw said dropping rates of transmission (R-values) for most of the province is a positive sign that the spread of the disease may be declining, but on Thursday she said it will be a few weeks before they know if the number of new cases are dropping as well.
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Contact tracing overwhelmed: NDP
Meanwhile, the Alberta NDP released an internal Alberta Health Services memo Thursday showing contact tracing efforts are being pulled back, including for variants and outbreaks.
The memo says contact tracing for many workplaces will fall to employers, and that individuals, schools and daycares will be notified of variant cases. It says AHS will still investigate “high-risk” workplaces.
NDP Leader Rachel Notley said she’s “extremely troubled” by the memo, alleging contact tracers are overwhelmed and Alberta’s high infections shows Premier Jason Kenney has “failed to learn from his mistakes.”
Dr. Verna Yiu, CEO of AHS, said at the Thursday news conference they are actively recruiting but AHS has 2,500 contact tracers — which is up from 1,250 in January and 50 before the pandemic began. Alberta’s contact tracing system was heavily taxed amid rising cases last fall, prompting a hiring surge.
But Yiu acknowledged AHS stopped notifying employers about positive cases at the end of April to focus on reaching those who test positive within 24 hours. Employees with COVID-19 are expected to tell their bosses themselves.
Contact tracing is the “shared responsibility” of all Albertans, she said. AHS has online contact tracing tools.
Yiu said AHS prioritizes “high-risk” workplaces for outbreak investigations — including long-term care, corrections, shelters, work camps, food processing plants, warehouses and manufacturing — but all close contacts will still be told to isolate.
Multiple cases in any workplace will trigger an investigation, she said.
COVID-19: Doctor's note now needed for mask exemptions in Alberta to close 'loopholes' - Edmonton Journal
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