EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says indoor group sports and fitness classes in major centres will have to stop for a two-week period to try to slow a soaring rate of COVID-19 cases in the province.
Kenney says amateur singing, dancing and theatre groups will also have to take a break when enhanced pandemic measures begin Friday.
The restrictions apply to Edmonton, Calgary, Grande Prairie, Lethbridge, Fort McMurray and Red Deer.
The United Conservative government is also making bars, lounges and pubs stop serving alcohol by 10 p.m. and close at 11 p.m. in areas of the province under enhanced watches.
There are also to be no social gatherings in homes.
"It's almost certain that we've not yet seen the peak of the current increase," Kenney said as he appeared at the Thursday briefing via teleconference.
He explained he had, for the second time in recent weeks, been in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19 and so would have to self-isolate until Nov. 23. He said he had been tested and was waiting for the result.
The premier noted that daily cases, hospitalizations and COVID-19 patients receiving intensive care are all more than double what they were at the height of the first wave of the pandemic last spring.
"We can't afford to wait," he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2020.
The Canadian Press
