By: Thomas I. LiknessEBC News Service

(Eagle News) — Two high profile doctors have written Alberta’s new health minister telling him it is critical that he take action immediately to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Dr. James Talbot, a former chief medical officer of health for the province, and infectious disease specialist, Dr. Noel Gibney, say Health Minister Jason Copping should implement what they call a ‘fire break’ lockdown for a minimum of four weeks.

“Albertans are now dying at a rate of 15 per day from COVID-19, with as many as 29 dying in a 24-hour period. This is frighteningly close to our worst experience in the pandemic, when 25 people per day were dying and far fewer people were immunized,” the doctors wrote in a letter released Sunday.

They recommend the closure of all nightclubs, casinos, bars and restaurants. As well, they say indoor exercise and sports activities should be shut down. And they call for strict capacity limits on stores, shopping malls and houses of worship.

The doctors say Alberta hospitals and ICUs are under more stress than any other time in the province’s history.

“So much COVID is circulating in the province, because of our almost total lack of control measures, that Alberta has 11 times as many active cases as Ontario and four times as many as B.C.,” the doctors say. “The rates are so high that we are now witnessing rare events like an 18-year-old dying.”

Other measures they say that should be adopted immediately include transferring ICU patients to hospitals in other provinces, making the use of vaccine passports mandatory and mandating immunization of workers in both essential and non-essential businesses.

But it’s not likely the province will follow the doctors’ advice — at least for awhile.

On a national radio program, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said a lockdown makes no sense for the 80 per cent of the population that is vaccinated.

He added people who are not immunized would be less likely to follow public health restrictions.

But Talbot and Gibney warn of dire consequences if nothing is done.

“We are within days of being forced to implement a triage protocol which will force health care workers to make life and death decisions on who will get scarce resources, like ventilators,” they write. “Those that do not are likely to die.”
(Eagle News Service)