'Flirting on the knife's edge': Oilers welcome fans back as doctors warn a new lockdown is needed in Alberta
For the first time since the NHL suspended its 2019-20 season due to COVID-19 in March of last year, the Edmonton Oilers welcomed fans back into Rogers Place on Tuesday night.
Under Alberta's Restrictions Exemption Program, the pre-season game against the Seattle Kraken could have been played in front of a sellout crowd; a scenario not without risk of COVID-19 transmission, according to the Alberta Medical Association (AMA).
“I think the risk isn’t zero and I think what we’re saying is we don’t have a lot of room on the runway anymore,” AMA president Dr. Paul Boucher told CTV News Edmonton on Tuesday.
Outside the arena doors, COVID-19 continued to push Alberta's health-care workers and ICUs close to their limits. With 20,513 active cases in the province, Alberta has close to half of Canada's 46,425 active cases.
The province had military personnel on standby to help, record ICU numbers, surgery cancellations and health-care staff recently educated on Alberta's triage protocols.
The situation caused the AMA to recommend a new lockdown period to Alberta's health minister.
"We're flirting on the knife edge," said Dr. Boucher, "and that's where the call came from."
Despite the call for a new lockdown, the Oilers hosted 13,000 fans at Rogers Place on Tuesday night.
Dr. Boucher commended Alberta's two NHL teams for announcing special COVID-19 preventative measures prior to the province's latest restrictions' announcement.
The AMA president said, while the optics of allowing large crowds to gather indoors aren't great, it shouldn't be the Oilers decision to make.
"It's really not, in many ways, the Oilers job to be gauging ICU capacity and how much risk they can take with opening the game," said Dr. Boucher. "That should come from our government."
While a sellout crowd at Tuesday's pre-season game was technically possible, Oilers Entertainment Group's (OEG) Tim Shipton said it wasn't likely.
"The good thing about pre-season for where things are at right now is that we typically expect between 60 and 70 per cent attendance," Shipton told CTV News Edmonton.
Alberta's Restrictions Exemption Program meant fans over the age of 12 needed to show proof of vaccination, or a negative COVID-19 test from within 72 hours, in order to attend the game.
The Edmonton Oilers are the only Canadian team in the NHL to allow unvaccinated fans to attend their games, a move infectious disease expert Dr. Lynora Saxinger said could cause some problems.
"A three-days-ago rapid test, I think, also leaves a fairly large margin for potential error in terms of missing someone who could be infectious,” she said.
Meanwhile, even Shipton admitted the province's proof of vaccination document isn't a foolproof measure.
"Certainly there’s an element of good faith I guess that has to go into people coming into the venue,” he said.
The Oilers said they would try to keep people spaced out for Tuesday's game, adding they would monitor how things go and potentially adjust policy if needed.
"We have supported frontline workers and medical professionals in the province of Alberta throughout the pandemic and we definitely are listening to medical experts as we craft our policy," said Shipton.
"We have a system in place here in Alberta, under the Restrictions Exemption Program, that we're going to be following. We feel, at OEG, that there are things we can do to enhance the system."
As of Tuesday, Alberta had 1,100 patients in hospital with COVID-19, with 263 of those in ICU, according to the province.
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Dan Grummett
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING | Several people dead in Copenhagen shopping mall shooting
A shooting at a Copenhagen shopping mall on Sunday left several dead and injured, police said. The suspect, who is in custody, is a 22-year-old Danish man who was detained near the Fields shopping mall, said police inspector Soren Thomassen, head of the Copenhagen police operations unit.

'Be prepared for delays at any point': Canada not flying alone in worldwide travel chaos
As Canadian airports deal with their own set of problems amid the busy summer travel season, by no means are they alone.
Alpine glacier chunk detaches, killing at least 6 hikers
A large chunk of Alpine glacier broke loose Sunday afternoon and roared down a mountainside in Italy, sending ice, snow and rock slamming into hikers on a popular trail on the peak and killing at least six and injuring eight, authorities said.
Blue Jays mourn death of first base coach Mark Budzinski's daughter
First base coach Mark Budzinski is taking a leave of absence from the Toronto Blue Jays following the death of his daughter.
Dog left with lost baggage at Toronto Pearson Airport for about 21 hours
A Toronto woman says a dog she rescued from the Dominican Republic has been traumatized after being left in a corner of Toronto Pearson International Airport with baggage for about 21 hours.
'There should have been one': N.S. mother drives son to ER after waiting nearly an hour for ambulance
A Nova Scotia mother says she had to drive her son to hospital herself on Canada Day when no ambulance showed up after more than 40 minutes.
Dinosaurs' rise to dominance linked to adaptation to cold, study finds
A new study has offered what it says is the first physical evidence showing dinosaurs from the Triassic period regularly endured freezing conditions, allowing them to survive and eventually supersede other species on the planet.
Vancouver police service dog named after Calgary police officer
A Vancouver Transit Police service dog has a special connection to the Calgary Police Service.
'Ungrading': How one Ontario teacher is changing her approach to report cards
An Ontario high school teacher plans to continue with an alternative method of grading her students after an experiment last semester in which students proposed a grade and had to justify it with examples of their work.