Premier Jason Kenney, other officials to update Albertans about COVID-19
CBC
With concerns growing worldwide about the new omicron variant of the coronavirus, Premier Jason Kenney and Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, will provide an update Monday on COVID-19 in Alberta.
Kenney and Hinshaw will be joined by Health Minister Jason Copping and Dr. Verna Yiu, president and CEO of Alberta Health Services, at a news conference starting at 3:30 p.m.
You can watch it live here.
The World Health Organization designated omicron a variant of concern on Friday. The same day, the Canadian government implemented new travel restrictions on foreign nationals who had visited several countries in southern Africa over the preceding two weeks.
Canada's first two cases of the variant were identified this weekend in Ontario.
On Sunday, Hinshaw said on Twitter that there were no confirmed cases of omicron in Alberta.
She added that Alberta public health officials are working with colleagues across the country to monitor the omicron situation.
Hinshaw said public health officials have contacted individuals in Alberta who have travelled from one of the countries of interest in the past 14 days. Those individuals are required to quarantine for 14 days from their return date and get tested, she added.
Hinshaw said she is working with Alberta Health Services "on a proactive plan to manage any future travel-related and omicron cases here in Alberta."
Intelligence regarding foreign interference sometimes didn't make it to the prime minister's desk in 2021 because Canada's spy agency and the prime minister's national security adviser didn't always see eye to eye on the nature of the threat, according to a recent report from one of Canada's intelligence watchdogs.