Wednesday, August 5, 2020 Vol. 43, No. 32
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Your LOCAL Paper!
67 active COVID-19 cases locally Patricia Harcourt Editor
An outbreak of 80 cases of COVID-19 overall in Beaver County has enhanced local concerns about the increasing spread of the virus. Of that, there were 67 active and 13 recovered. Beaver County’s statistics can be broken up into two regions: Viking and area in the east and Tofield and area in the west. Statistics released Aug. 4 by Alberta Health Services show 67 active cases in the Viking area in the eastern half of the county with six other cases recovered for a total of 73. The Tofield area in the western half of the county has no active cases, and all seven recovered. The number of COVID-19 cases have been increasing all week in the Viking region, with 69 active cases listed on Friday, 66 cases on Thursday, and 34 cases listed on Wednesday. Beaver County issued the following statement after being informed that the county is now under a watch list (although the Alberta interactive map just shows the eastern half of the county under this watch when filtered by local geographic area); “Alberta Health Services has assured us that all the cases, both the ones in the past, and now the most recent ones, are from a known source, and everyone involved is cooperating with Alberta Health Services to prevent further spread. The general population in the Beaver County Region is not at risk. “Please do your part to stop the spread by following all the guidelines of Alberta Health Services, including maintaining a distance of at least 2 metres between yourself and others, washing or sanitizing your hands, and wearing a mask in public places.” Beaver County Reeve Jim Kallal added: “The county has taken the pandemic very seriously and would ask all our residents to maintain social distancing and wear a mask when at all possible.” It has been widely speculated the local outbreak is related to one or more hutterite colonies in the area, but that has not been confirmed publicly by Alberta Health Services. Many advocates have warned against discrimination in small communities, as the virus can affect anyone and those colonies afflicted across the prairies are being closely monitored by health agencies, with all necessary precautions being taken. Viking Mayor Jason Ritchie pointed out that Viking being listed as the location on the interpretive AHS map in the eastern part of the county is misleading. Ritchie said that reference is to a regional area that includes Viking. But unlike Beaver County, which was contacted by Alberta Health Services and given information about the virus, Ritchie said: “We haven’t been contacted by AHS. I take that as a good thing.” Ritchie also believes the virus numbers can be misleading in that people can test positive for the virus even while recovering from it and not being contagious.
“They are testing positive because it’s still in their system.” But he said people aren’t placed in the ‘recovered’ category until they stop testing positive. He noted some people discussing the issue on social media are incorrectly questioning if the virus came from the Carena, which is now open with restrictions to hockey camps. With the summer hockey camps, however, Ritchie was confident the Carena’s arena and concession area were being run in an extremely safe manner, with staff following all necessary protocols. Arena Manager Darryl Gagnon listed all the protocols involved in staging these events, which begin with only allowing the players and immediate families inside. “They’re not going into town, they are in the rink and then going home.” Screening is done at the incoming door. The players must already be dressed upon arrival so dressing rooms have limited use. Gagnon said that 70 per cent alcohol disinfectant spray is applied after each group uses a space. “We’re taking extreme measures to clean more than normal,” he said. If anyone was in the building who turned out having the virus, “we would shut down the facility and do a deep clean…But we haven’t had a single case. I know many of the kids and if there was a case we would have heard of it.” There are also 18 cases in the Municipal District of Wainwright No. 61 with eight of them active and nine recovered. Unfortunately, Wainwright has also had one recent death. Wainwright was on the watch list last week but was taken off Aug. 4. Due to the increase in cases, Alberta Health Services has placed the Viking half of the county on watch status. Watch status means it is above the acceptable threshold but not yet high enough to take any additional action. Beaver County’s rate of active cases last week per 100k was 637.8 based on a population of 10,191; the M.D. of Wainwright’s was 101.6 based on a population of 11,810. If more cases are discovered, the level could go to “enhanced,” which means additional public health measures would be taken to try and contain the spread of the virus. As of Aug. 4, Flagstaff County now has six active cases with five people recovered. The county is still in an ‘open’ status with no additional measures to be taken as of that time. However, southwest of Flagstaff an earlier outbreak of active cases had been of concern in the County of Stettler. That county has 12 active cases and 30 recovered for a total of 42. As of Tuesday, there were 1,191 active cases reported across the province with 85 in hospital and 23 in intensive care. In all, since the beginning of the pandemic, 201 Albertans have died. The average victim age, according to the Alberta Government’s website, is 84.
Province announces mandatory masks in schools for staff, students grades 4-12 Patricia Harcourt Editor The wearing of masks will now be mandatory for Grades 4 to 12 when returning to school this September, stated Education Minister Adriana LaGrange and Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw Tuesday. Ever since the announcement was made that students were returning to the classroom across the province there have been concerns expressed that not enough was being done to keep students, teachers, and other staff safe. One of the main concerns was in the classroom where class sizes and distancing between students was not being addressed. There was to be increased cleaning measures but no reduction in the number of students in each class. Teachers said they could not teach properly and be the person to sanitize the rooms to the degree required by the COVID-19 virus. Although class sizes were not addressed by the officials, the mandatory use of masks for older students was, although masks are not mandatory except in common spaces. “There is emerging evidence that masks can play a major role (in reducing the chance of infection),” said LaGrange. The staff in schools will be required to wear their masks at all times and in all settings where physical distancing can’t be maintained. The wearing of masks will be optional for students from Kindergarten to Grade 3, she said, as “children under 10 are less likely to transmit COVID.” The province will provide every K-12 student with two reusable masks, as well as teachers, support staff and bus drivers. This means 1.6 million masks will be outlaid to 740,000 students and 90,000 staff in the province. The reusable masks will allow someone to use one mask at school and have another mask being cleaned at home. In addition, single use masks will be made available. And teachers will be given face shields to use “at the discretion of the individual staff member,” although the person using a face shield will still have to also wear a mask. She repeated an earlier sanitation measure of hand sanitizer stations to be placed at the entrance to every school. The amount of hand sanitizer that will be distributed will depend on the population of a particular school. See SCHOOL MASKS P7