St. Albert is now under new regional health measures after its active COVID-19 cases rose by 16 overnight.
This means St. Albert will have all junior and senior high school students move online. All indoor fitness and sports will be shut down starting Friday and restaurants will be asked to more strictly police patios to ensure only members of the same household are dining together.
On Thursday, the province announced new regional restrictions for communities who had more than 350 active cases per 100,000 people as well as more than 250 active cases in total.
At the time, these communities include Edmonton, Calgary, Airdrie, Grande Prairie, Red Deer, Lethbridge, Fort McMurray and Strathcona County. By Friday, St. Albert added enough active cases to join the list.
St. Albert had 245 active cases on Thursday. That increased to 261 on Friday. The city has 375 active cases per 100,000 people.
All youth and adult indoor sport, performance and recreation activities are prohibited. This applies to all youth activities, including for students still learning in classrooms.
All indoor recreation facilities must close. Outdoor recreation amenities can be open to public access unless specifically closed by public health order.
Once in place, these targeted restrictions will remain for at least two weeks. The enhanced measures will be lifted after 14 days if St. Albert falls back below the threshold.
In extreme cases, a curfew will be implemented when communities hit a threshold of more than 1,000 cases per 100,000 people, or if a municipality requests it.
“The restrictions currently in place will not bend the curve fast enough to get this third wave under control before the summer,” Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said on Thursday.
City facilities
The city posted to its website Friday afternoon that all Arden Theatre programming will continue to be offered virtually. The theatre is closed until further notice, and the box office will be reaching out to ticket-holders about dates, refunds or credit options.
All city performing arts classes will be virtual only until further notice.
All indoor fitness and recreation activities at Servus Place, Fountain Park Pool and Jarome Iginla/Kinex Arenas are cancelled for at least two weeks.
