Dear Diary, today was a nice day outside. Finally it feels like spring is just around the corner. The sun was shining, and it was warm. Hope is in the air.

The best news we’ve heard so far, everyone who is 18 and older will have a chance to receive a COVID-19 vaccine by June 30th, 2020. The minster of health and Dr. Hinshaw announced this today.  And by fall everyone will get their second dose! Of course deliveries will have to be kept on time for this to happen.

So will there be a summer hockey season? You will have to judge for yourself. We think the odds are heavily on our favor now. There is little chance the season will get cancelled if enough people are vaccinated. In fact we expect the restrictions to begin loosening sooner than later.

Will the summer hockey season start on time? That we do not know yet. We certainly hope so, and we see the trend moving in the right direction.

There is even talk of fans at Flames and Oilers game, skip to 16:30 to listen to the question/answer about that.

But here, listen to the news conference for yourself.

As far as the stats go. As of today, there are 245 people in hospitals across Alberta, including 47 in ICU. This is a decrease of 6 hospitalizations and a drop of 1 in ICU patients. So things are moving in the right direction there. These of course are lagging indicators.

And now to the leading indicators. 331 new cases were reported with a positivity rate is 3.6%. This is also a decrease from yesterday. Strangely the R rate was not mentioned in today’s presser. Must not be too concerning then?

As far as March 22nd date for moving to step 3 goes, the minister said, hospitalizations as well as leading indicators need to be stable. We are optimistic! Watch for Jonson & Jonson vaccine to speed the vaccination pace up as it should be approved withing a few weeks, if not sooner in our opinion.

What about BC?

According to CBC, “There are 248 people in hospital, 63 of whom are in intensive care. There are currently 4,743 active cases of COVID-19 in B.C. and 8,659 close contacts of confirmed cases are being monitored by public health. “

BC government has not really said what things will look like going forward as far as reopening goes. Last update was on November 18th, 2020. So we wait and see.

That’s it for today. Have a safe night.

Hockey, we miss you!