Alberta's COVID-19 crisis: Canada's House of Commons holds emergency debate

The House of Commons of Canada held an emergency debate on Alberta's deepening COVID-19 crisis on Wednesday evening.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced new restrictions on Tuesday, moving students online and closing patios among other measures amid a spike in COVID-19 cases.

The province said the new measures apply to all Albertans, businesses, organizations and service providers in municipalities or areas with more than 50 cases per 100,000 people and with 30 or more active cases. They will be in place for at least three weeks.

The government doubled the basic fine for violating public health orders from $1,000 to $2,000. Kenney said there will be tougher enforcement protocol for repeat offenders.

Alberta added three deaths to its COVID-19 total on Monday and all three people were under the age of 50. All three deaths occurred in the North zone and were reported to Alberta Health in the last 24 hours.

Over the same time period, the province confirmed an additional 2,271 cases of COVID-19 from 20,494 tests. The provincial positivity rate was 11.2 per cent.

Alberta also confirmed an additional 903 cases of variants of concern. Variants now make up at least 59.4 per cent of Alberta’s active cases.

For more info, please go to https://globalnews.ca/news/7837356/alberta-covid-19-coronavirus-may-5-update/

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