Watch this page throughout the day for updates on COVID-19 in Edmonton
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COVID-19 news happens rapidly, we have created this file to keep you up-to-date on all the latest stories and information on the outbreak in and around Edmonton.
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What’s happening now
Share your COVID-19 stories
As Alberta grapples with a fourth wave of COVID-19 at the start of another school year, we’re looking to hear your stories on this evolving situation.
- Have you or a loved one had a surgery rescheduled or cancelled in recent weeks?
- Are you someone who has decided to get vaccinated after previously being skeptical of the vaccines?
- Have you changed your mind about sending your children back to school in person?
- Have you enrolled your children in a private school due to COVID-19?
- Are you a frontline health-care worker seeing new strains on the health system?
Send us your stories via email at edm-feedback@postmedia.com
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Tuesday
Alberta MLA says she’s outraged COVID-19 protesters left noose outside her home
An Alberta government MLA says she is outraged and shocked after anti-mask protesters hung a noose outside her house on Sunday.
Speaking to reporters in the legislature Tuesday, UCP MLA for Grande Prairie Tracy Allard said although she wasn’t home at the time, it was disturbing that the group of up to 30 protesters left the noose behind.
“That is a clear act of aggression and utterly unacceptable,” Allard said. Captured in a photograph Allard posted on Facebook Monday , the noose is seen attached to a small makeshift wooden gallows, and is painted with the words, “no to masks, end the gov’t, hang ‘em all.”
“This is not normal and it’s not OK. No matter what political background you’re from, when you step into public service, there has to be some modicum of etiquette and decorum,” Allard said, adding she decided to speak out because she does not want young people to be deterred from seeking public office out of fear of being vilified.
Tuesday
Notley grills Kenney over summer pandemic absence; Alberta reports 315 COVID-19 cases
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For the second day in a row, NDP Leader Rachel Notley peppered Premier Jason Kenney with questions about his government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic over the summer.
At the legislature on Tuesday, Notley accused Kenney of being absent as Alberta’s cases and hospitalizations soared while he was on vacation in August.
The premier said he called an emergency meeting of the COVID-19 cabinet committee as soon as he was warned hospitals could be impacted.
“We accepted recommendations to delay the implementation of moving from pandemic to endemic management. All of that is very clear. It’s a matter of public record.”
Kenney said he stayed in touch with staff and made decisions while away, including to expand access to COVID-19 booster shots: “Ultimately I’m responsible for the executive council.”
Notley pointed out his calendar doesn’t show daily meetings with anyone while he was on vacation.
“During the three weeks when this premier supposedly managed the pandemic from Europe, case counts in Alberta more than tripled,” she said.
“Can the premier tell us why, when Albertans desperately needed someone to protect their health and their safety and that of their families, all they got was out of office replies?”
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https://edmontonjournal.com/newsletters/
Letter of the day
Foreign money promotes pollution
Kudos to Kevin Van Tighem for his well-documented article “There is foreign money in Alberta, but it’s promoting new coal mines.” He quotes forensic accountant Steve Allan, who found environmentalists not guilty of anti-Alberta crimes or misdemeanours. This despite the fact that Jason Kenney and his energy minister Sonya Savage have wasted Albertans’ tax dollars fighting against local NGOS such as the Pembina Institute.
Van Tighem also points out that Australian money, not Albertan or even Canadian, has been pumped into our province to promote open-pit mining on the eastern slopes of the Canadian Rockies. This leads not only to the destruction of our forests and meadows, but downstream pollution from our watersheds into not only rural areas, but major cities like Edmonton, Red Deer and Calgary.
Would the Hon. Premier Jason Kenney fire Sonya Savage but stop the destruction of our precious land? We do not want to be another West Virginia.
Martin Katz, St. Albert
Letters Welcome
We invite you to write letters to the editor. A maximum of 150 words is preferred. Letters must carry a first and last name, or two initials and a last name, and include an address and daytime telephone number. All letters are subject to editing. We don’t publish letters addressed to others or sent to other publications. Email: letters@edmontonjournal.com
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Tuesday
Most Canadians agree with a COVID test to drive back from U.S. — unless they plan a trip
Shari Kulha
Snowbirds anxious to finally drive to their winter destinations may be the first Canadians lining up at U.S. border crossings when they reopen on Nov. 8.
But there’s still one restriction on our books that may pose a challenge to Canadian day-trippers and others wanting a shorter trip out of the country.
While the U.S. has dropped its requirement for an incoming negative COVID test, Canada has yet to rescind its rule that all northbound travellers aged five and older must have taken a COVID-19 molecular test within 72 hours of crossing a land border. That’s in addition to proof of full vaccination.
A Leger survey for the Association for Canadian Studies and Metropolis North America reveals a wide gap between those who want to keep the expensive test in place to prevent potentially infectious cases coming into Canada and those who want it cancelled.
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Of the survey respondents who intend to drive south before the end of the year, 68.3 per cent want the re-entry test dropped; of those who intend to stay north of the border, only 26.7 per cent want it dropped.
Travellers’ decision-making will vary depending on their planned length of stay in the U.S. Those looking to overwinter in the sunbelt will not likely be deterred by the re-entry test requirement, but those looking to cross for a shorter term may find the test’s 72-hour response time and its cost — which can run to $200 — dampen their enthusiasm for a quick trip. Rapid antigen tests are not accepted.
“I don’t expect there to be line-ups at the border if the PCR test requirements remain in place,” said Jack Jedwab, president, ACS-Metropolis. “That said, the low cost airlines near the borders in those U.S. towns may regain Canadian customers, (as may) family and friends’ visits over multiple days or long weekends.”
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Tuesday
Nearly 300 WestJet workers suspended over COVID-19 vaccine rules
Bryan Passifume
Nearly 300 employees of Canada’s second-biggest passenger airline are off the job for not complying with government-mandated vaccination rules.
A spokesperson for Calgary-based WestJet told the Globe and Mail that 290 workers — about 4% of the airline’s staff — have been suspended.
New rules came into force over the weekend requiring both passengers and crew members of federally-regulated transportation companies to be fully inoculated against COVID-19.
The deadline for air and rail companies was Nov. 30, while those involved in maritime transportation had until Monday.
Those failing to meet the deadline will be suspended and eventually fired if they don’t get the shot.
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Tuesday
‘No word better captures the atmosphere’: Oxford English Dictionary chooses ‘vax’ as 2021 word of the year
Bloomberg News
Vax has been chosen as the Oxford English Dictionary’s word of the year for 2021, with the term for vaccine capturing the essence of the past year during the coronavirus pandemic.
The report by Oxford Languages found that by September “vax” was more than 72 times more frequent in our language than at the same time last year. Numerous derivatives of the word have appeared in informal contexts, such as “vax sites”, “vax cards”, “getting vaxxed” and being “fully vaxxed”.
“No word better captures the atmosphere of the past year than vax,” Oxford’s site notes, calling it a “particularly striking term.”
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Senior editor Fiona McPherson told BBC that ‘vax’ was an obvious choice as it has made “the most striking impact”.
“It goes back at least to the 1980s, but according to our corpus it was rarely used until this year,” she said.
“When you add to that its versatility in forming other words – vaxxie, vax-a-thon, vaxinista – it became clear that vax was the standout in the crowd,” she said.
tuesday
COVID-19 could be endemic soon. What will that mean?
Joanne Laucius, Ottawa
Expect to hear the word “endemic” a lot more in the coming months as COVID-19 moves from a pandemic to something that is always lurking in the background.
Endemic COVID-19 will be back to normal — kind of.
“It will be part of our lives. But the goal will be to make it a less intrusive part of our lives. No more lockdowns. We will think about it the way we think about other infectious diseases,” said epidemiologist Raywat Deonandan, a global health researcher at the University of Ottawa.
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“It is possible that we’ll get it to the level of the flu. But that’s not necessarily a good thing. Flu is a killer.”
When will it happen?
“We won’t know until we’re there. Locally, it will probably be sometime next year. The big caveat is that there are no new variants, and that vaccines behave in predictable ways,” said Deonandan.
“We’re anticipating that we will have COVID seasons for the next few years as we build up immunity. There will be no ticker tape parade, no sign that says ‘We’re endemic!’” said Dr. Doug Manuel, a senior scientist in the clinical epidemiology program at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute who sits on Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table.
Endemic COVID will likely be seasonal, similar to the flu, which shows up in the winter as people mingle inside and droplets travel faster because of dry indoor air. But outbreaks will not necessarily be limited to winter. Colds are seasonal, for example, but there are still summer colds.
