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“The choice is not between implementing another lockdown or letting COVID-19 run unimpeded. Instead, we must make it as easy and safe as possible for Albertans to live with this virus for the foreseeable future.”
We do that, she says, by “implementing targeted measures when needed, such as the 15-person limit on social gatherings announced on Monday” for Calgary and Edmonton, and not a repeat of across-the board lockdowns that lead to so much despair and hardship.
Hinshaw says learning from other jurisdictions also helps. As a result, there are some new rules for parents to follow when it comes to their school-aged children attending school.
Already, angry, hateful tweets are popping up on Twitter attacking Hinshaw and the provincial government for this.
The first change includes removing runny nose and sore throat from the list of symptoms that require mandatory isolation for children.
Hinshaw says in the past week, more than 3,400 children and youth reporting a sore throat were tested for COVID-19. Of those, just a little over 700 had a sore throat as their only symptom. “Less than one per cent of those tests were positive,” she said.
“Similarly, more than 3,300 children were tested with a runny nose, with only 601 of whom having a runny nose and nothing else. Less than 0.5 per cent of those tested positive for COVID-19.
“This shows us that these symptoms by themselves are very poor indicators of whether a child has the virus.
