COVID-19: Kenney announces Alberta vaccine passport program ending at midnight

Alberta’s COVID-19 vaccine passport program will cease to exist when the clock strikes midnight on Feb. 9, and almost all public health restrictions will be lifted March 1 if the situation in hospitals continues to improve, Premier Jason Kenney announced Tuesday.

At a news conference, the premier said while the restrictions exemption program (REP) served its purpose of increasing vaccination rates, it is no longer an effective tool for doing so and no longer needed, especially with so many vaccinated people still contracting the highly-transmissible Omicron variant of COVID-19. “(The REP) has made a huge difference,” Kenney said. “It has saved many lives.” However, he said he does not believe the program can serve any useful purpose going forward, unless one were to change the definition of full vaccination to three doses of a vaccine or more. Read more: Decision on Alberta’s vaccine passport expected this week as province records 39 COVID-19 deaths Monday Kenney said scrapping REP was among a number of changes to the province’s pandemic response that were approved by his government’s COVID-19 cabinet committee earlier in the day.

Officials in some municipalities, including Alberta’s two largest cities, have previously said they would look at whether to take steps to keep some public health restrictions through bylaws if the province lifts them before they think it is prudent to do so.

Kenney said he would like to speak with mayors who are considering taking such actions. “I’d like to know if it is there intention to create an entirely separate municipal public health policy,” he said. “I think that would be a serious problem.” Kenney acknowledged that in a free market system, businesses who want to continue to