Alberta advocacy group calls on province for stricter lockdown to prevent 3rd wave of COVID-19

A new advocacy group is calling for a quick and strict lockdown to stifle a third wave of COVID-19 infections.

Go4Zero, a group that includes physicians, scientists, economists, industry leaders and citizen activists, wants the province to adopt a COVID-zero policy.

The policy would close most schools as well as all non-essential services and retail for seven to eight weeks.

The group is also calling for financial supports for businesses and people who would be impacted by the lockdown.

Dr Shazma Mithani, an Edmonton emergency room physician and member of Go4Zero, says physicians are having a lot of anxiety about the healthcare system becoming overwhelmed.

"We saw during the second wave, we were on the brink of collapse," she said.

"We started having discussions about whether we needed to make difficult decisions for our patients and whether we were going to be able to offer the care."

Mithani says the rapid rise in the number of cases the province has seen in the last week has made physicians dread what a next wave could look like. 

"Given where we are right now, if we don't do something to stop this, the variants are likely going to make this third wave even worse than the second wave."

Alberta reports record variants of concern

The advocacy group's plea comes a day after Alberta reported a record 184 case-count of variants of concern on Sunday.

Health Minister Tyler Shandro said at a press conference Monday that variants now account for 16 per cent of Alberta's active cases — up from 10 per cent a couple of weeks ago.

The rise of variants and hospitalizations have caused the province to choose to not move to Step 3 of its reopening plan.

"Unfortunately, as we have seen, cases, variants and hospitalizations continue to rise in recent days. We cannot take the risk of easing any measures at this point," said Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health.

"Now is not the time to abandon tried and true practices that have protected our communities and our healthcare system over the past year. COVID-19 is still very much with us."

However, Go4Zero doesn't think the province is doing enough.

The group says it expects daily COVID-19 case counts could hit 2,000 by mid-April.

"Basically we could stop it now by a financially-supported lockdown or we will need a harsh and much stricter lockdown at the end of April or beginning of May that would last much, much longer," said Dr. Gosia Gasperowicz, a developmental biologist and member of Go4Zero.