About a dozen protesters were outside Education Minister Adriana LaGrange’s office on Sunday afternoon insisting that it’s too soon to eliminate masking for students.
“It’s important to follow the science and we’re not following the science in schools. We feel students should not be unmasked when they go back on Monday,” said Katherine Simone, of Red Deer.
“Alberta children are our future and I think it’s really important to protect their health and the health of people who work in schools.”
Last week the province announced that as of Feb. 14. pre-kindergarten to Grade 12 students will no longer have to wear masks in schools to protect against the spread of COVID-19.
Masks will still be required for adults including teachers, administrators, other school staff, volunteers and bus drivers, but the province was looking at eliminating all masking rules and other restrictions by March 1.
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Simone said everybody wants the pandemic to be over, but Alberta isn’t even over its most recent COVID peak yet. On Friday there were 23 deaths reported in Alberta and locally Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre is struggling to meet the demand for health care. A patient died in the emergency department in January while waiting for further care.
More recently on Saturday, the hospital had to temporarily divert ICU patients because of an influx of patients. Red Deer’s non-emergency surgery patients were also diverted two weeks ago to Edmonton or Calgary due to the high volume of cases and staff vacancies.
“It’s important to reduce protections when the science indicates so, and right now our health care workers are screaming online that they’re not being listened to,” Simone said.
As of Monday, the province had 20,865 active cases of COVID-19, 1,528 people in hospital with COVID, including 124 in the ICU.
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Protesters received regular honks of support while they waived signs at motorists.
Simone said it didn’t take long before the honking started so they knew others were also concerned about how quickly the province was eliminating COVID restrictions.
“I’m pleased because there are far more people that want to follow the science and protect each other. We feel like we’re alone because the (anti-COVID restriction) minority is so loud and so aggressive.”
szielinski@reddeeradvocate.com
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