As of midnight Tuesday, Albertans will no longer need to show their QR code to dine in restaurants or sit at entertainment venues.
Premier Jason Kenney announced the three-step plan to ease public health measures in the province on Tuesday. As he'd previously promised, the restrictions exemption program — Alberta's version of the vaccine passport — was first to go.
"It is clear that we passed the peak of our current infections about three weeks ago and are now seeing the result as COVID-related hospital admissions are declining," Kenney said at a news conference.
"It has always been the government's approach to keep public health measures in place only so long as they are absolutely necessary to protect public health and our health-care system throughout the pandemic."
At midnight, capacity limits will be removed for smaller venues, including libraries and places of worship with a capacity of less than 500. Food and beverage consumption will be allowed in venues where audiences are seated.
Larger venues will still have some limits: facilities with a capacity of 500 to 1,000 will continue to be limited to 500, while those with capacity for 1,000-plus people will be limited to 50 per cent.
Also part of the first phase, children aged 12 and under will be exempt from all masking requirements; in schools, masking requirements will be lifted for students of all ages. Both those measures take effect on Monday.
"The threat of COVID-19 to public health no longer outweighs the hugely damaging impact of health restrictions on our society, on people's mental health, on their emotional wellbeing, on our broader social health," Kenney said.
"So now is the time to begin learning to live with COVID."
When asked why the province is moving so quickly to remove health measures, Kenney said, "We know that in many areas that we are already having compliance problems.
"I just think it would invite very widespread non-compliance for no useful purpose"
Soon Ontario will announce similar plans to drop all mandates