Alberta accepts COVID aid from N.L., days after rejecting initial offer
CBC
Alberta's premier has accepted medical aid from Newfoundland and Labrador, days after saying the COVID-stricken province didn't require help dealing with a fourth-wave peak.
Premier Jason Kenney said Thursday evening that some hospitals are "under severe stress," citing low vaccination uptake in the central part of the province.
Kenney said an agreement with Newfoundland and Labrador is now being finalized, which includes the lending of five or six ICU-trained medical staff.
There are 20,255 active cases of COVID-19 in Alberta as of Thursday, with 1,083 people in hospital being treated for the disease, including 263 in intensive care. Kenney thanked Premier Andrew Furey for offering assistance earlier this month — aid that he originally turned down.
"We were moving toward a start date for that ... and then last week, Premier Kenney said that the situation had evolved to the point where their predictive modelling would suggest that they wouldn't require our resources at this time," Furey said in a briefing Tuesday.
"I reassured him that we would be there for him ... provided our situation is OK into the future."
The cadre of medical workers heading west will mirror what Newfoundland and Labrador offered Ontario last spring, when Premier Andrew Furey sent two waves of doctors and nurses to jump into the fray of Ontario's gridlocked hospitals.