Kenney urges Albertans to follow public health measures as COVID-19 numbers surge

Premier Kenney is meeting with Alberta's top doctor ahead of the long weekend, as the province adds 871 cases and breaks a record for variants. @Crisladeras

EDMONTON (660 NEWS) — The province is reporting 871 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday, with variants accounting for a record 406 cases.

This case count is the highest single-day total since mid-January.

At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Premier Jason Kenney called the surge in variant cases a “wake-up call” and urged the public to avoid getting together with other households this Easter weekend.

“The end is in sight but we need to get through the last ten minutes of the game here,” Kenney said.

“We have to finish this strongly without imposing massive pressure on our hospital system.

“Please be very careful and follow the public health guidelines and the restrictions in place.”

“We think a lot of the spread that is happening now is because people have become tired of all of this. They’ve either kind of forgotten about the guidelines or they just wished them away.”

Kenney added they continue to see transmission taking place within households and younger adults are experiencing severe outcomes from contracting the much more contagious variants.

“Let’s just, please, buckle down in the next month or so to get us through this without threatening our hospital system, it’s critically important,” he said.

B.C. introduced circuit breaker restrictions to deal with their surge in cases and Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford hinted at the possibility of imposing a lockdown to try to control the spread.

Despite Kenney’s concern, he does not plan to bring in stay-at-home measures.

“Alberta’s approach has never been to chase zero COVID,” he said.

“The broader cost to peoples lives, to their livelihoods, to our social and economic health would be massive.”

Three more deaths were reported Wednesday. All three people were over 60 and two people had comorbidities.

Almost 101,300 Albertans have been completely immunized, receiving both doses of the vaccine.

A total of 634,997 doses have been doled out so far.

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