And coming up at 5 pm MT: cbc.ca/news/canada/ed… Kenney says it's clear #AB passed peak of omicron infections weeks ago. He points to England, Scotland, Denmark lifting restrictions and states like CA and NJ removing mask mandates.

Meanwhile, biggest takeaways from press conference on Coutts blockade: cbc.ca/news/canada/ca… 1. RCMP insist there are very "definite actions" taking place
2. But police don't have a way to remove vehicles, trucks from the scene (towing companies have told them they don't want to get involved) - this appears to be their biggest challenge & it isn't clear what the plan is

Infectious disease specialist Dr. Stephanie Smith says she thinks it may be "a little bit early" from a hospital perspective to lift #COVID19 restrictions. She says hospitalizations have plateaued, not declined. 1/4 #ABCOVID 2/4 However, she says the REP program (#AB's vaxx passport) gives us "the least bang for our buck." She says vaccines can prevent severe disease but they are not as good at preventing infection. She says it makes sense if REP program is 1st to go. #ABCOVID

Coming up in 15 minutes: globalnews.ca/news/7733440/a… New numbers from @jkenney:
-875 new cases
-of which 322 are variants of concern
-292 in hospital including 59 in ICU
-4 new deaths

Operator just told us the call will be taking place "shortly." The waiting continues... Kenney starts by saying yesterday's meeting was 8 hours long.

@CMOH_Alberta says there's a backlog of cases for contact tracers. Positive cases have received results but AHS has not been able to do contact tracing investigation. Effective tomorrow, if 10 days have passed since you received a positive test result, AHS will no longer call you to do a contact tracing investigation.

Kenney says there were 802 #COVID cases yday and 609 are being reported today. He says there are 171 people in hospital with 33 in ICU.

If you test positive for #COVID19 now and aren't in a priority setting, you have to do your own contact tracing. Here's the script from AHS:
"Hi – this is ___ (name of positive case). I am calling to inform you that I have tested positive for COVID-19. 1/4 2/4 "Alberta Health Services recommends that I notify you that you have been exposed to COVID-19. I am sorry to have to tell you this. It’s very important that you MUST immediately self-isolate, and go to ahs.ca/covid,

@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.

I sat down with @AdrianaLaGrange today for a 45-minute chat about back to school. We discussed a lot, here are some bullet points: With outbreaks and hundreds of students in isolation, can we really say this school year has been a success? LaGrange says it's just the start of the school year and the cases in schools were not contracted in schools, they were from the community. #ABEd

Public Health Act Review is taking place this morning. Cdn Civil Liberties Asso executive director spoke earlier. He is asking the committee to recommend all orders under the act be made available online, tweeted out, etc. Michael Bryant also says he doesn't know if there was a necessity for health records to be made available to police to see if they were exposed to #COVID19 by a suspect. He says there is already a process for police to get a warrant for that info. 1/2

Shandro starts off today's update by talking about how some non-urgent surgeries are starting up again. #ableg #abhealth Shandro says as more surgeries are phased in, they will monitor and evaluate if more procedures can resume, such as short-term overnight stays. He says if there's too much risk, they may take a step back if need be.

Effective immediately Alberta government is asking all large gatherings or international events in #AB to be cancelled. This relates to events with more than 250 attendees.

Final after action report of Strathcona County response to parkade explosions incl areas of improvement: components of emergency mgmt plans and readiness, components of incident mgmt (clarifying roles/responsibilities), components of crisis communication (timely release of 1/2 2/2 statement to the public) and components of business continuity (risk assessment and impact analysis): page 15 - pub-strathcona.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ash… #shpk #yeg

Stephen Mandel makes announcement today in #YEG that he’s heard people are getting robocalls and those calls are being made in his name, saying Stephen Mandel endorses Jason Kenney. #ableg Mandel says “where is the morality?” and says the campaign has reached an “all time low.” #ableg #yeg