The Canadian Medical Association is calling for lockdowns in both Alberta and Saskatchewan as the fourth wave of COVID-19 threatens to overwhelm their health care systems..“This is beyond anything that the health care system has ever faced in modern times,” Dr. Katharine Smart said in an interview Wednesday with the Canadian Press. .“What we’re seeing now is essentially no ability to provide any other acute-care medicine beyond care to people with COVID. So, in essence, the health-care system has already collapsed.”.In both provinces, the health care systems have been battling mainly the Delta variant of COVID-19..Hospital admissions are skyrocketing and ICUs are being overwhelmed..The CMA is calling for schools and all non-essential services to be shut down for a short time to try and stop the spread of coronavirus..Smart told CP Alberta and Saskatchewan have COVID-19 mortality rates about three times the national average..“There is a lot of resistance from both political parties to really step up with any significant changes in their public health mitigation strategies,” she said..“We’ve seen lots of sort of tinkering around the edges, but no real commitment to doing something meaningful to change this trajectory..“People cannot keep doing this indefinitely and the system is already totally overrun and collapsing..“What is happening is as heartbreaking as it was preventable. We are now in a situation where it’s all hands on deck to address the state of crisis.”
