Edmonton puts brakes on restrictions bylaw after province announces new COVID-19 measures
City council hears grim projections at special meeting Tuesday
Edmonton will pause the creation of a new pandemic restrictions bylaw after the province announced new COVID-19 restrictions measures Tuesday, Mayor Don Iveson says.
In a statement, Iveson said the new measures — which put a total ban on indoor and outdoor gatherings and close or restrict thousands of businesses — were necessary to stop the spread of COVID-19 in the region.
He added that the measures would be hard on both people and businesses, but everyone needs to follow health guidance.
"I urge Edmontonians to observe these new rules for our collective safety, and get creative about staying connected virtually through the holidays," he said.
"Not too long from now, we'll look back with pride at how we hibernated for health and, by our diligent actions, saved many lives and prevented an overload of the health system for those who still needed it."
Earlier Tuesday, several doctors from the Edmonton Zone Medical Staff Association, representing 1,700 health experts in the city, joined a special Edmonton city council meeting to explain the need for stricter measures to limit public spread.
Dr. Noel Gibney, a professor emeritus of the University of Alberta's department of critical care medicine and co-chair of the staff association's strategic COVID-19 pandemic committee, presented council with projections.
"Without a meaningful change in the rate of infections, hospitalization and ICU admissions, it is likely that there will be over 1,000 hospital COVID patients and 170 ICU COVID patients by Dec. 17," Gibney said.
The doctors project that if measures were not taken, the number of Alberta patients in hospital will balloon to 2,000 with 300 of them in ICU by the end of the month.
City council passed a motion asking the province to enact much stronger restrictions, based on the the doctors' recommendations. Iveson said Tuesday night that he believes the new province-wide measures "meet that imperative."
Hearing from the doctors Tuesday prompted city council to move ahead with its own plans to curb the exponential spread of COVID-19, in case the province failed to take action.
Council agreed unanimously to draft a pandemic restrictions bylaw that would allow the city to limit gatherings in restaurants and similar businesses such as casinos, and places of worship.
Although council is pausing action on the bylaw, councillors will still be meeting later this week to discuss communication and enforcement of the new measures, and to understand how the measures may affect city operations.
Tired, demoralized
Hospitals and continuing care centres are becoming progressively overwhelmed as health-care professionals work at maximum capacity, Gibney told council.
"The hospital staff are already exhausted, many sick, others in isolation or quarantining," he said.
It's an increasing challenge for hospital staff to provide care to others going to hospital for non-COVID-19 reasons, like strokes, pneumonia and trauma, Gibney said, adding that overcrowded ICUs will increase the risk of spread.
Dr. Neeja Bakshi, an internal medicine physician at the Royal Alexandra Hospital and on the COVID-19 unit since April, said it's a challenge to assess which patients may see their condition deteriorate.
"We are often seeing patients get sick seven to 10 days after they swab and sometimes they're doing well on the ward for a day or two and we're planning for discharge. And three minutes later, we're calling ICU with a crash cart."
Bakshi said the strain on doctors, nurses and environmental cleaners is visible.
"When you look at people's faces walking through the hallways of the hospital, we are tired, we are demoralized, we are unsure how long we're going to keep up with this," she told city council.