Thread by @JWongGlobalNews

@CMOH_Alberta starts by saying, due to a technical issue, there will not be detailed case numbers today.

However, she does say there are about 800 cases in the last 24 hours.

She says the measures introduced 10 days ago, which may have helped cases plateau, are not having enough of an effect.

Hinshaw says, in #yeg 9% of active cases worked with symptoms, 8% visited retail and 8% attended a social gathering.

40% of active cases in #yyc and #yeg were exposed in the household or a social gathering, Hinshaw says.

If we can reduce cases in this area, we can quickly bend the curve back down, Hinshaw says.

Hinshaw says AHS does not have the capacity to call every contact of a case in a timely way as case numbers rise.

Effective today, as an interim measure until more contact tracers are hired, AHS will focus contact tracing on high priority settings only, such as continuing care facilities, healthcare settings, schools.

Organizers of events, such as group fitness, wedding or party, are already responsible for alerting attendees.

Now, everyone else will be asked to notify their own close contacts.

Any evidence Halloween was part of this? Hinshaw says she doesn't think Halloween is yet driving these numbers. They will be watching the numbers in the days to come (since most cases happen btw 5-8 days after exposure)

Why are we not talking about restrictions today? Hinshaw says they did see some impact after mandatory measures were introduced in #yeg and #yyc; they want to make sure Albertans have every opportunity to work with minimal restrictions before putting more in place.

Why have testing numbers been so low? Hinshaw attributes it to data issues and discrepancies. She says yday's testing numbers were actually 11k and today's is about 14k.

How can the province justify no data on weekends and also delays yday and today? Hinshaw says this has not been a good week and there have been lots of different things happening that are unrelated.

Other jurisdictions have moved to smaller gathering sizes. Will #AB? Hinshaw says they're encouraging all Albertans to think about the # of people they are in close contact with and make it as small as possible.

Concerns contact tracing is going to break down completely if Albertans are responsible for reaching out to close contacts? Hinshaw says this is a temporary measure and they are relying on Albertans to partner with them to bring numbers down.

Have you made recommendations to govt that have been rejected? Hinshaw says they are in discussions right now given the current trends, important to balance the harms of COVID with harms of restrictions. She does not answer the question.

Note, this new change also relies on personal responsibility. So take that for what you will.