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Are Alberta’s new COVID restrictions too tough or not strict enough?

CALGARY (660 NEWS) – As the province rolls out new, temporary, restrictions to fight COVID-19, some industries feel singled out while others say the new measures don’t go far enough.

As of Friday, all indoor recreational activities in cities under enhanced status are banned for two weeks and places of worship can only run at one-third capacity.

The government is also ordering bars to stop liquor service at 11:00 p.m. with the last call at 10:00 p.m.

RELATEDNew COVID-19 restrictions announced for Alberta

The Alberta Hospitality Association feels bars and restaurants are being short-changed, especially when people may just hold get-togethers at their own places.

“It’s safer to come to a restaurant,” said Ernie Tsu with the association. “It’s been stated by our Chief Medical Officer, by our Premier. I cannot tell you how many steps restaurants have gone through to keep the public safe.”

Tsu added that despite spending so much time re-opening safely and keeping the spread of COVID-19 down, they’re now being punished.

“It’s obviously a very tough pill to swallow right now, especially after the announcements of the scientific data that came out on the number of cases that are coming from our industry, which are very, very, very low.”

Meanwhile, some in the health care system believe the new restrictions are not enough and are calling for tougher measures.

Mike Parker is president of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA) and said hospitals and long-term care centres are about to overload. He said the province may need to call in the military to help as other provinces have.

“Unless this government does something realistic, something based on leadership, we are going to be close to that situation very, very soon.”

The HSAA along with the United Nurses of Alberta (UNA) and the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) recently signed a letter along with over 400 health care workers from Alberta calling for a two-week lockdown.

RELATEDHealth care unions in Alberta join call for two-week lockdown

The letter called for businesses like restaurants and other non-essential services to close for 14 days to give contact tracers a chance to catch up and hopefully stop the growth of hospitalizations.

A similar tactic is currently underway in two major regions in B.C.

Parker also suggested some penalties for those who refuse to follow health orders but admits he doesn’t know if the province is capable of enforcing that.

“We have a Health Minister that is non-existent, we have a Premier who is non-existent on this issue and what we should start doing is trusting our science and our medical professionals and stop basing our decisions on ideologies that is just making it worse.”

Alberta is currently sitting at 8,305 active cases of COVID-19, with over 800 reported on Thursday.

Nearly 400 people have died from the virus and 252 are in hospital with 51 in intensive care.

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