KENNEY SLEEPWALKING INTO SECOND WAVE OF COVID-19

EDMONTON - Premier Jason Kenney must take immediate action in response to surging COVID-19 cases to protect Albertans’ safety and prevent a return to economic restrictions.

“Jason Kenney is not living up to his own personal responsibility as premier, which is to keep Albertans safe,” said Rachel Notley, Leader of Alberta’s NDP Official Opposition. “He is sleepwalking into this second wave of the pandemic.”

Alberta’s daily COVID-19 case numbers have escalated to over 500 in the past month, but the Alberta government has not presented any plan to respond.

“I am acutely aware of the hardships that physical distancing and business closures and other restrictions cause for Albertans. The current trajectory of our case numbers is taking us towards a much restrictive scenario. We all want to avoid that, but Jason Kenney is failing to take action that will help keep Alberta’s economy open,” Notley said.

Alberta’s NDP Official Opposition is calling for six pro-active and non-restrictive measures that could reduce transmission and change the trajectory of Alberta’s case numbers.

1. Reverse the plan to fire 11,000 frontline hospital workers
2. Faster turnaround for testing results and public reporting of turnaround times
3. Hire more than 1,300 human contact tracers 
4. Immediately make the COVID-19 national contact tracing app operational in Alberta
5. Introduce a COVID-19 Risk Index that gives business the ability to plan for moving up or down a stage of the relaunch strategy.
6. Develop and publish a provincial staffing plan for continuing care facilities 

“In April, Jason Kenney said the COVID-19 pandemic is the greatest challenge of our generation. Our daily case counts are more than 10 times what they were in April and I worry that the Premier has lost focus on the gravity of the situation,” Notley said. “We do not want to see another lockdown and the way to avoid that is to take this seriously now.”