Thread by @shazmamithani

Ok team, this is my first ever thread so please bear with me. I’m going to lay out for you all of my concerns with the new restrictions on group fitness, liquor sales, and bar/restaurant curfews today and why they aren’t enough 1/9

First, any restrictions made today have a 2 week lag time. When the healthcare system is already stretched (130% capacity as per @shandro and some ICUs already overcapacity), action needs to be taken NOW 2/9

If we wait until the system has collapsed, it is already too late. If we get to a state where we cannot cope before stronger restrictions are made, we still have to somehow keep afloat in dire circumstances and a lack of beds for at least another 2 weeks more 3/9

Bringing me to my second point - bed capacity. Today, we heard @jkenney say that they set aside 2400 acute care beds and 650 ICU beds with ventilators for COVID. This is deceptive misleading. 4/9

Although we may have the physical bed space and ventilators to do this, a “bed” cannot exist without the personnel (cleaning staff, nurses, RTs, clerks, doctors, etc) to staff these units. We are already having trouble staffing the beds we DO have. 5/9

So to my third point - HCW shortages. A combo of burnout, sickness, and isolation from exposures has led to a critical shortage of HCWs. ERs in Edmonton are closing beds and/or relying on redeployed nurses to care for sick patients, which is getting harder to do 6/9

Finally, moving onto the measures. They are simply not enough. Despite half of the cases not traceable to a source and with contact tracers completely overwhelmed, a few token measures were made, while social gatherings are allowed to continue outside of the home. 7/9

Every other province (BC, ON, QC, MB) that has recently instituted new measures in response to a rapid second wave has stopped socializing outside of household bubbles. @jkenney and @CMOH_Alberta have stated time and time again that this accounts for 40% of spread. 8/9

Yet, for some reason, socializing is allowed to continue. If we continue to wait days to weeks between ineffective measures, it will not take long for our healthcare system to reach a state of collapse. We need stronger measures now before it’s too late to catch up. 9/9