Alberta not imposing stricter interprovincial travel just yet

EDMONTON (660 NEWS) — Alberta isn’t following Manitoba’s footsteps and imposing stricter measures on interprovincial travel.

On Tuesday, Premier Brian Pallister announced his government is requiring all domestic travellers to self-isolate for 14 days after entering the province.

He called the move is necessary as the country sees a rise in COVID-19 variants and a slower rollout of vaccines.

There are 20 known U.K. variants and five South African cases in Alberta. One of the U.K. cases hasn’t been linked to travel, meaning it could have entered the broader community.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, said she doesn’t believe the province needs to impose restrictions on interprovincial travel at this time.

“The phase we’re in right now where we’re looking at these different variant cases emerging is that we need to look at not just the international travel, but it’s important we also look at interprovincial travel,” she said.

“The public health measure and public health precautions that are in place in almost every province across the country, if we all follow them, we will be able to limit transmission.”

Contact tracing teams continue to investigate the single case not linked to travel. There has been limited household transmission at this point but there is no evidence to suggest it’s spread beyond that.

“We’re doing both the forwards tracing and backwards tracing to try to understand where that came from, as well as aggressive testing to make sure that we are monitoring any potential for onward spread and putting a stop in place around that,” Hinshaw said.

There were 366 COVID-19 cases found after the province conducted over 8,000 tests.

The provincial positivity rate is currently 4.4 per cent.

Fourteen new deaths were reported bringing the total to 1,587.

Alberta continues to see a downward trend in hospitalizations with 626, of those 108 are in the ICU.

Nearly 100,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the province. Over 9,000 Albertans have been fully immunized with a second dose.

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