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COVID-19: Canada Responds
Alberta Premier on Province's New Restrictions, Vaccine Eligibility for Children
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney holds a news conference in Edmonton to provide more details about the province's new public-health measures aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease). He also announces that by May 10, all Albertans ages 12 and over will be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. This announcement comes following Health Canada's authorization of the Pfizer vaccine for children in the 12 to 15 age group. The vaccine had initially only been approved for people 16 and older. Alberta's expanded vaccine strategy will be implemented in two steps in order to avoid overwhelming the province's booking system. Starting May 6, people ages 30 and over will be able to book their appointments. Bookings will open on May 10 for people ages 12 to 29. The premier is joined by provincial ministers Tyler Shandro (health), Adriana LaGrange (education) and Kaycee Madu (justice and solicitor general). Kenney announced the new restrictions in a televised address the previous evening. The measures include moving all kindergarten to Grade 12 students to at -home learning until May 25 and moving all post-secondary schools to online learning. Other measures include closing all workplaces with COVID-19 outbreaks for 10 days, limiting capacity to 10 percent or five customers for retail services, and doubling fines for violating public-health orders to $2,000, with tougher enforcement protocols for repeat offenders. Restrictions will be in place for at least three weeks. In recent days, the province has seen the highest per-capita COVID-19 case numbers of any Canadian province or U.S. state. (May 5, 2021) (no interpretation)