Province asks for help from armed forces

NDP accuses UCP of playing politics, calling delay `disgustingly cynical'

Alberta is working with Ottawa on a plan for armed forces to help relocate COVID-19 patients to hospitals outside of the province, if necessary.

Speaking at an afternoon news conference Tuesday, Premier Jason Kenney said the arrangements were precautionary.

“We do not currently need the support, and we do not have an imminent need for it, but it's prudent to plan for things in case we reach a worst-case scenario,” Kenney said.

NDP Opposition Leader Rachel Notley spoke to media following Kenney's COVID-19 update and said that it's false of the premier to claim that Alberta does not need the help yet.

“The UCP'S call for this help is unforgivably late,” said Notley. “Alberta hospitals have been overwhelmed with COVID patients for many weeks now.

“Thousands of Albertans have had life-saving surgeries cancelled, the premier declared a public health emergency himself even six days ago and yet this call for help sat on someone's desk until the federal election was over.”

Earlier in the day, Municipal Affairs Minister Ric Mciver asked the federal government for air ambulances as well as additional critical care hospital staff, particularly intensive care unit registered nurses and respiratory therapists.

Mciver faced immediate criticism for waiting to request federal help until after Monday's election.

Mciver said on Twitter he didn't know who would win the election and in turn didn't know which minister would be in charge on Tuesday. He followed up that he was told Monday that the letter was required.

“Nobody believes Ric Mciver's claim that he simply didn't know who to send the letter to,” Notley said. “This is not how government functions and he knows that and it's simply false for the premier to claim that Alberta doesn't even need the help yet, specifically when talking about the additional critical care staff that was a part of the request made by Minister Mciver. We needed those additional staff weeks ago.”

NDP health critic David Shepherd said he hopes the federal government can provide the resources Albertans need to relieve some pressure on the hospitals, but that Albertans should be “appalled” that Mciver didn't ask for help sooner.

“Alberta's frontline health-care workers need all the help they can get as they struggle with the emergency created by the UCP'S failure to act for months while this crisis escalated,” he said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.

“Once again, the UCP is focused on politics instead of the terrible price that Albertans are paying right now, with record ICU admissions and thousands of life-saving surgeries cancelled. It's disgustingly cynical.”

COVID-19 hospitalizations, which hit a record high for the third consecutive day Tuesday, have been threatening to collapse the province's health-care system amid the fourth wave of the pandemic. Intensive care units have been especially hard hit, and Alberta Health Services has responded by opening more than 150 surge spaces.

Provincewide intensive care unit capacity is currently at 87 per cent, and would be at 169 per cent if not for the surge spaces.

The province reported 1,519 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, and a total of 20,917 active cases. Currently, 996 Albertans are in hospital with the virus, including 222 in the ICU. There was an additional 29 COVID -related deaths reported on Tuesday.

“This heavy death toll is tragic and it is devastating and most importantly it was completely avoidable,” Notley said.

Four Alberta health-care unions previously urged the province to call in the military to help the overwhelmed hospital system.

Meanwhile, the province expanded the list of severely immunocompromised Albertans who can receive a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at least eight weeks after getting a second one.

The newly eligible include individuals in active cancer treatment, those with chronic kidney disease receiving regular dialysis, and people on certain medications for autoimmune diseases.

The move brings Alberta in line with recommendations from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization.

Alberta has seen a sharp uptick in COVID-19 vaccinations since announcing its vaccine passport last Wednesday. Seventy-two hours afterwards, the province had administered 78,000 doses, Kenney said.

More than 23,000 vaccines were administered Monday. As of Tuesday, 72.8 per cent of Albertans 12 and older had got two doses while 81.4 per cent of eligible Albertans had received at least one.