Premier Kenney has announced Alberta is moving back to Step 1, effective April 7 (midnight tonight).

It was decided that the step back was necessary in order to curb the rapidly rising cases of COVID-19 and variants of concern in the province. 

"We averaged almost 1,000 new COVID cases a day over the long weekend. The surge of variants went from 100 new cases a day three weeks ago to 676 new cases today. Variants are consistently over half of the new cases and 40% of active cases." says Kenney, "These variants are a real enemy of public health and of lives."

Starting at midnight April 7

  • Retail services must reduce customer capacity to 15 per ent of fire code occupancy, with a minimum of five customers permitted.
  • Curbside pickup, delivery and online services are encouraged.
  • Shopping malls will be limited to 15 percent of fire code occupancy. 

Indoor fitness

  • Only one-on-one training with an individual or household is permitted for indoor fitness activities 
  • No drop-in activities or unsupervised individual fitness.
  • Group fitness, high or low intensity, is not allowed.
  • Outdoor physical activity is allowed with up to 10 people, provided physical distancing is maintained between households.

Adult performance activities

  • Adult performance activities are not permitted. Performance activities include dancing, singing, acting, playing a musical instrument and any rehearsal or theatrical performances.

Additional restrictions for restaurants take effect on April 9 at noon in which indoor in-person service will no longer be permitted

  • Takeout, curbside pickup and delivery services are permitted.
  • Outdoor patio dining is also allowed. Tables and dining parties must be two metres apart or separated by an impermeable barrier that will prevent droplet transmission.
  • Household members only, or two close contacts of someone who lives alone.
  • Contact information must be collected from one person of the dining party.

Step 1 restrictions will remain in place until further notice.

For more details go to alberta.ca

The COVID-19 numbers for Tuesday, April 6 were as follows.

  • There were 931 new cases of COVID-19 identified in the past 24 hours with 9,100 tests were performed for a positivity rate of 10.2%.
  • There were 676 new cases of variants of concern identified.
  • There are 328 people in hospital.
  • Three additional deaths were reported which caused Alberta to surpass the grim milestone of a total of 2,001 deaths in the province. 
  • Cochrane added one more case for a total of 83 active cases.
  • Rocky View County added one case for a total of 141 active cases.