The COVID-19 pandemic in Alberta was part of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The province of Alberta had the third-most cases of COVID-19 in Canada, behind Ontario and Quebec.
Jason Kenney, the Premier of Alberta, working closely with the Emergency Management Cabinet Committee, followed the recommendations of Alberta's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, in response to the "rapidly evolving global threat". A state of public health emergency was declared on March 17. Alberta's public health laboratory greatly increased tests for COVID-19, reaching 1,000 a day by March 8, and 3,000 a day by March 26. Hinshaw said that by March 20, "World-wide, Alberta has been conducting among the highest number of tests per capita." As of March 18, 2022, 6,905,190 tests have been conducted in Alberta. On June 12, the entire province of Alberta moved to Stage 2 of the government's economic relaunch plan.
The peak of the first wave was reached on April 30, 2020, when the number of active cases of COVID-19 in the province reached 3,022. By October 19, 2020, during the second wave, the number of active cases reached 3,138. This began a series of new record-high case numbers in Alberta, peaking on December 14, 2020, at 20,500 active cases. An attempt to lift restrictions after cases subsided in early-2021 was interrupted in March by a third wave, fuelled by variants of concern. This led to a rollback of the reopening process until the first vaccine dose was sufficiently distributed among residents. On July 1, Alberta lifted almost all remaining public health orders. In late July 2021, amid evidence of a fourth wave in Alberta, the province faced criticism for plans to treat COVID-19 as an endemic illness by scaling back testing, contact tracing, and self-isolation requirements.
Due to the fourth wave, the province began to reintroduce restrictions on September 4, including mandatory masks inside public indoor spaces. On September 15, 2021, Premier Kenney redeclared a public health emergency, announced the reinstatement of restrictions on businesses and gatherings, and announced a vaccine mandate for businesses, entities, and events that require exemptions to the public health orders.
Timeline
Government response
Mitigation measures
Initial response
On March 12, 2020, the province restricted all gatherings to a maximum of 250 people, recommended against international travel, and recommended that anyone returning from international travel self-isolate for 14 days on return. The Alberta Court of Queen's Bench postponed all jury trials scheduled to begin after March 13. Jury trials which were already in process, would continue.
Premier Kenney declared a public health emergency on March 17. The next day, he announced a series of provincial financial measures, including deferral of utility payments, ceasing of collection of corporate income taxes, a "six-month moratorium on student loans", and an emergency isolation support package.
On March 28, after having restricted them to 50 people, the province further limited gatherings to 15 people, suspended vehicle access to provincial parks, and ordered the closure of all "close-contact" health and personal care services, dine-in restaurants, and "non-essential" retail stores. Premier Kenney also announced protection for renters.
On April 23, Hinshaw announced that the restriction on gatherings of more than 15 people would persist through the summer. Hinshaw stated that although cases were trending downward, COVID-19 "spreads rapidly through social interactions", and it would be "with us for many months to come", and that they did not want to risk any further super-spreader events. The Calgary Stampede, K-Days, and a number of other provincial events were therefore cancelled, with the Stampede cancelled for the first time in nearly a century.
On April 30, the Alberta government announced a plan to lift restrictions in several phases. Some medical services and outdoor recreational activities reopen in early May, while daycare centres, restaurants and some retail outlets will reopen at reduced capacity on May 14. The timing of the next phase would depend on whether or not the first phase results in an increase in virus cases.
Second wave Restrictions began to re-emerge in November 2020; on November 12, it was announced that for 14 days, bars would be required to end liquor sales by 10 p.m. and close by 11 p.m. within regions that were given an "enhanced status" classification by the AHS, and that all group fitness, group performance, and indoor team sports activity would be prohibited in the regions of Calgary, Edmonton, Fort McMurray, Grande Prairie, Lethbridge, and Red Deer.
On November 24, Kenney announced that all indoor "social gatherings" would be prohibited, residents may only be in close contact with members of their immediate household (or up to two people if living alone), and outdoor gatherings, weddings, and funerals would be limited to no more than 10 people. Students from grade 7 through 12 would shift to online classes from November 30 to January 11, 2021. In addition, event venues and indoor play spaces in enhanced status areas would be ordered closed, restaurants would be limited to tables of six with no entertainment allowed, casinos would be prohibited from operating table games, and retail businesses would be capped at a maximum of 25% of their licensed capacity. Kenney also encouraged businesses to allow remote work. It was stated that the measures would be evaluated and that by December 15, the province desired the rate of new transmissions to fall to 1%.
On December 8, Premier Kenney announced a new series of health orders. All social gatherings were prohibited, and face masks must be worn province-wide in any indoor public space. Effective December 13, all in-person restaurants, bars, casinos and gaming facilities, indoor entertainment and recreation facilities, fitness centres, personal care facilities, art galleries, libraries, museums, and arenas were ordered closed. Remote work was required by all employees unless their physical presence was considered necessary for their respective jobs, and all retail businesses and religious gatherings were limited to 15% of the venue's licensed capacity. These measures would remain in effect for at least four weeks. Kenney stated that he did not want to order the closure of all retail businesses, considering such a measure to have been disproportionately advantageous to "big U.S.-owned big-box stores" and detrimental to smaller, Alberta-owned businesses.
On December 22, Premier Kenney announced a one-time exemption to the province's gathering restrictions for the holiday season, allowing people who live alone to visit another household once between December 23 and 28. On January 7, 2021, Premier Kenney announced that the existing measures would be extended for at least two more weeks.
On January 18, the province began to allow outdoor public gatherings of up to 20 people, and personal care services to reopen for one-on-one appointments. On January 21, the remaining restrictions were extended for an indefinite period, with Hinshaw stating that Alberta needed to "give it a bit more time" and focus on "how we all collectively work together to keep those numbers coming down."
"The Path Forward" On January 29, 2021, Premier Kenney announced that restrictions would begin to be eased on February 8 via a framework known as "The Path Forward"; it defines key metrics which would allow restrictions to be eased incrementally, over several steps. Among these benchmark metrics were upper limits on hospitalized COVID cases, and a minimum wait period of three weeks between each step, in order to assess impact and ensure that the healthcare system would not be overwhelmed.
On March 1, Premier Kenney announced that Alberta would begin to phase in "Step 2", allowing for low-intensity group fitness classes to resume. The remainder of Phase 2 was implemented March 8, which included the ability for libraries to reopen (limited to 15% capacity), retail to operate at 25% capacity, banquet and conference halls to open for allowed activities, and collegiate sports programs allowed to conduct practices with 10 participants per group, with three metres of social distancing between them and masks mandatory (games are prohibited).
On March 22, due to a major surge of cases brought upon by variants of concern, Health Minister Tyler Shandro stated that the province had no plans to move to "Step 3" at that time, explaining that "moving to Step 3 can be considered only when hospitalizations for COVID patients are under 300 and declining. Hospitalizations must be on a clear downward trajectory if we are to enter any new step, just like they were when we entered Step 1 and Step 2 earlier this year."
Return to Step 1 On April 6, Premier Kenney announced that Alberta would be rolled back to Step 1 effective 11:59 p.m. MT until further notice; in addition, beginning April 9 restaurants were prohibited from offering indoor dining, but could still offer outdoor dining. On April 29, Premier Kenney announced a series of "targeted health measures" applying in regions with at least 250 active cases and more than 350 active cases per-100,000; schools must close to in-person classes, indoor gyms must close, and all indoor sports activity must be suspended. These orders would apply for two weeks, even if incidence rates fall below the threshold during the period. Kenney indicated that curfews may be implemented at the request of local officials or if active cases exceed 1,000 per 100,000.
Third wave On May 4, Premier Kenney announced new restrictions; province-wide, all schools and post-secondary institutions were moved to online classes from May 7 to at least May 25, all in-person dining at restaurants was prohibited beginning May 10, and all indoor recreation activities were prohibited. In regions with at least 50 active cases per 100,000, gatherings were further limited to 5 people, personal care services were ordered closed, retail stores were limited to 10% capacity, outdoor recreation with individuals from outside of the immediate household was prohibited, and any non-critical business that is the subject of a COVID-19 outbreak will be ordered closed for 10 days. Hinshaw later stated that the move to close schools was an "operational decision" due to community transmission impacting staffing.
"Open for Summer Plan" Alberta's "Open for Summer Plan", which was announced on May 25 with some measures implemented on June 1 and all public health restrictions lifted by July 1, was directly responsible for a September spike in preventable COVID-19 cases, according to Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta chief medical officer of health. Hinshaw accepted responsibility for the "narrative" in July that the pandemic was over. By October, the Open for Summer plan was described as a "failure" and a "cautionary tale" for other Canadian provinces as the number of delta cases climbed. Even with the number of cases increasing, Kenney had refused to impose vaccine passports. Mask mandates were lifted. Plans were in place to "abandon test, trace and isolate protocols." As the number of cases and hospitalizations steadily climbed throughout the summer, Hinshaw and Kenny failed to reimpose public health measures. Kenney's poorly thought out policy decisions, his slow response to increasing cases and hospitalizations, combined with Albertans comparatively low vaccination rates became a "recipe for disaster". Ontario with a much larger population but with restrictions in place, fared much better.