The province is taking the final steps to ease public health measures as Alberta moves past COVID-19.

Effective June 14, 11:59 p.m., Alberta moved into step 3 which includes lifting mandatory masking on public transit and ending mandatory isolation.

The Government stated that they still recommend isolating for those who have symptoms or test positive for COVID-19.

“We need to live with COVID-19 while accepting that it will continue to be present,” said Jason Copping, Minister of Health.

“We’ll continue to work to keep Albertans safe by ensuring access to vaccines, antivirals, and rapid tests, through ongoing COVID-19 surveillance, and by enhancing health-care system capacity.”

Masking and other health measures in AHS and contracted health facilities will remain in place through AHS policy.

AHS stated in a press release that the rate of new hospitalizations has been declining since its peak on April 26, with 20.7 new COVID-19 admissions per day per million population. As of June 9, the weekly average of new hospitalizations rate was 6.6 per day per million population.