Family gatherings blamed for high COVID numbers in the city
By Lethbridge Herald on March 12, 2021.
Herald filephoto by Ian Martens
Mayor Chris Spearman is disappointed the Alberta legislature has noted not to reverse the EMS dispatch decision. @IMartensHeraldGillian Slade
Southern Alberta Newspapers
Alberta Health Services (AHS) says the high number of COVID cases in Lethbridge is due to family gatherings and the City says it continues to liaise with the health authority about the situation.
The City of Lethbridge currently has 76.2 per cent of the active COVID cases in the whole of the South zone. According to data released by Alberta Health on Friday Lethbridge has 356 active cases and the South zone has 467 active cases.
“A majority of transmissions of the virus in South Zone continue to be the result of family gatherings and visitation between households,” said Patrick Burles, spokesperson for AHS, in an emailed response to questions.
Burles says there have been some cases linked to outbreaks at businesses and organizations but many of them are providing frequent testing of people on site whether symptomatic or asymptomatic.
Mayor Chris Spearman says the City of Lethbridge is working closely with AHS.
“We are certainly not the health experts and do not have the knowledge and expertise in the area of disease control. We rely on our partners at Alberta Health Services to do that,” said Spearman in an emailed response to questions
“We are working hard to support them by sharing important information with our community and providing whatever municipal resources might be needed to manage the pandemic.”
Spearman did not comment on possible transmission and says that tracking cases and understanding trends is the important work of AHS.
“It is certainly our role to make sure our community understands the increasing risks here in Lethbridge and encouraging everyone to continue following the provincial guidelines and refrain from social gatherings,” said Spearman.
Early in the pandemic, April 2020, Brooks was dealing with a sudden surge of cases.
In an interview with Medicine Hat News at the time, Mayor Barry Morishita said he worked with AHS to see a significant increase in testing.
He also expressed frustration with people not following the restrictions at that stage and promised “a more aggressive stance in terms of enforcement.”
Three months later, in July last year, Morishita credited two of that City’s initiatives for getting the number of cases reduced.
There had been two large scale drive-through testing opportunities for those without symptoms and the City had contributed $107,557 towards the cost of the initiative arranged through AHS.
Morishita specifically thanked Premier Jason Kenney for helping to make the additional testing happen.
AHS says, in Lethbridge, it continues to have testing capacity for symptomatic individuals, close contacts of a confirmed case and those linked to known outbreaks.
Burles said that AHS is also working with businesses and organizations to ensure compliance with the Chief Medical Officer of Health’s orders and COVID-19 restrictions.
When a significant risk is identified or if there is continued non-compliance, AHS resorts to enforcement action. AHS does not provide direction to police or municipal enforcement but works in partnership with them and Alberta Health.
Spearman says the city is not currently considering introducing any additional restrictions.
“As we move into the all-important task of having our community vaccinated, we will continue to be a strong partner with AHS and make sure we are doing all we can to make that process go as quickly and smoothly as possible for our community,” said Spearman.
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Family gatherings are not likely the reason for the increase, but rather infected persons coming to Lethbridge from the Reserve. Political correctness is going to continue to add to the death toll from Covid in Lethbridge. Get over it , call it as it really is, and STAY HOME!
Why believe the evidence from contact tracers (that home gatherings are the main source of spread) when you can scapegoat another group. Particularly when you can sneak in some racist overtones.
Interestingly, the Blood Reserve has done a much better job than Lethbridge controlling Covid-19.
https://btdh.ca/covid19/
I don’t follow that logic at all. The Reserves in fact are far and away ahead of us on immunization.
Contact tracers do as suggested they do, which is to follow the trail of infected people. So if they are saying its gatherings in households, then that’s what it is.
To assume that “whitey” is not gathering is racist and not based on facts. All you have to do is look who is still not wearing masks and attending anti-mask demonstrations….its “brilliant whitey”!
That is just blatant and ignorant racism. It’s quite pathetic ‘outsiders cause all your problems’ mentality.
It couldn’t possibly be self-entitled white people (young and elderly) who openly refuse to even wear a mask and don’t care which businesses they walk into (even if it puts all those employees jobs at risk), nor could it be the lack of enforcement of public health violators or the parties and businesses that do not comply to keep people safe or the booming traffic at the mall now.
No no, according to you it must be all the natives you come into contact with..they just magically get covid from the reserves then come into town.
Yes “stay home” is a correct observation. That is all folk , no matter their background, need to heed the AHS advice. Perhaps your vitriol would be better directed at those so called “Christian” churches insisting on their right to talk to a god in a very public space, defying all common sense and simple precautions. Or maybe at those “libertarians” selfishly insisting on their personal right to not wear a mask.
I do applaud Mayor Spearman for a more aggressive stance and I would hope we see that happen, including making sure all city facitities are also in compliance with social distancing, proper mask wearing, proper percentage of people allow as per fire code under the restrictions since some have been ‘overlooked’.
My question is: where are these people contracting the virus that they are infecting others at these family gatherings?
Contract tracing is not going deep enough, partly due to non-compliance of those infected to disclose!
My concerns after watching activities near my own business are the homeless, the addicts that do not follow any of the protocols such as wearing masks, frequent hand washing, social distancing moving all around the downtown area, using their fingers to blow their nose, then wiping their pants or urinating in the alley and not washing their hands, and instead of using hand sanitizer, I have watched some mix it with water in a pop bottle and drink it! Thankfully the Street’s Alive no longer has an outbreak but the Alpha House Shelter and the Blackfoot Family Lodge Shelter both have outbreaks.
There are many that don’t go to the shelters and I want to know if they are being tested?
There are many areas of concern that are not being addressed as I watch the activities in the downtown area, especially near our business community.
More needs to done and more needs to be done with the addicts and the homeless who wander around this city, without complying to AHS COVID rules. There is no doubt, none in my mind that they are one of the contributors to the spread in this city.
COVID stays on hard surfaces such as stainless steel and ceramic toilets or urinalssuch as for up to 72 hours and in the air of poorly ventilated rooms for up to 3 hours. Have we forgot all of these factors that contribute to the spread?
We need to be more aggressive with the rise in variant cases spreading across Canada!
mmmkay, families are bad, mmmkay. going out is bad, mmmkay. blame street people, mmmkay. especially blame natives and native street people, mmmkay. churches, especially white people churches, are good, mmmkay. didn’t know one could get covid on fingers from urinating in an alley, mmmkay. street people really should clean up their act, mmmkay. those of us lucky enough to have homes and decent paying jobs (yes lucky, as luck is massive factor as to whether we are financially, emotionally, spiritually sound, mmmkay. but let us blame street people, the worst off people, mmmkay, because it makes the lucky in our society feel justified with how much better off they are than the homeless and hopeless unlucky ones, mmmkay. a society that bases its success on self service and good luck needs scapegoats, mmmkay.
We all have a choices in life! There are more than enough social services in place in this city for anyone that doesn’t want to be on the streets, first an foremost!!
I am calling it what it is when I see a threat to society in this matter, something that certain Councillors are blind to!!!
great to have gyms open again…but what do we have to deal with? idiots that dangle their masks, or have their stupid clown noses uncovered. these are not street people, nor natives from the reserve. one can figure these uncaring dopes are in the cause of spread category.