BANFF – Banff is bracing for the potential of being placed on the COVID-19 watch list.
As of Tuesday (Nov. 10), there were eight positive COVID cases in Banff and Lake Louise, however the numbers are likely to continue to grow given the escalation of active cases in the province, which reached 8,090 Tuesday.
Councillor Peter Poole said he was worried about the coming weeks, fearing another lockdown.
“I am really concerned for our community, for the health of our health-care workers and school teachers,” he said.
“I am really concerned for our businesses that try and eke out a living over the Christmas and New Year period.”
According to the Alberta government’s Monday afternoon COVID briefing, there are currently 7,965 active cases province-wide, including 644 new cases that were identified in the previous 24 hours.
There were seven additional deaths reported, bringing the total number of novel coronavirus deaths to 369 province-wide. There are 192 people in hospital due to COVID-19, including 39 in intensive care.
A community moves to watch status when there are 50 active cases per 100,000 and at least 10 active cases.
If the province puts Banff on watch status in the coming days, the community would be required to adopt mandatory restrictions of 15 or fewer people for indoor and outdoor social and family gatherings.
“Essentially any private social gathering that has a mixing and mingling component would be reduced to 15-person limits,” said Silvio Adamo, the Town of Banff’s director of emergency management .
Adamo said that would apply to banquets, award ceremonies, wedding or funeral receptions, luncheons, potlucks, birthday parties, baby showers or retirement dinners as examples.
He said, however, it wouldn’t apply to seated audience gatherings such as conferences, sports, restaurants, fitness centres, wedding ceremonies, funeral services or worship services.
“Those numbers are maintained at a maximum 100 per indoor seated event and 200 per outdoor seated event,” he said.
In addition, areas with watch status are asked to voluntarily limit their contact to no more than three cohorts: your core household, your school, and one other sport or social cohort. Young children in child-care can be part of four cohorts.
On the testing front, Bear Street Physicians and Alpine Medical Clinic continue to provide COVID-19 testing.
“We continue to work with both offices and a local landlord to increase space and capacity for local testing,” Adamo said.
“This site would be used if one or both doctors’ offices cannot keep up with demand at their own offices, and could also be used in the event of an outbreak,” he added.
“In conversation with both offices, they are seeing significant increases in demand for local testing at this moment.”
Residents and visitors are urged to follow all public health measures to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, including abiding by Banff’s mandatory mask bylaw.
“As case counts continue to rise in our province and country, I am certain that folks are starting to get worried, amongst other feelings,” Adamo said.
“I want to remind us all, we have the collective capability to affect positive change through our day-to-day actions.”
Adamo said there was positive news on Nov. 9 with Pfizer – one of Canada’s vaccine partners – announcing its coronavirus vaccine proved 90 per cent effective in a final-phase study.
“There is light at the end of the tunnel. Pfizer has extremely positive results to date on human trials being conducted,” he said.
“That is still going to take some time, but in the interim, let’s all double down on our efforts and look forward to brighter days.”
In addition, The Town of Banff is encouraging all individuals and employers to be aware of the need to track close contacts on a daily basis, and their responsibilities to notify people who have been in close contact with someone who tests positive for COVID-19.
With the significant increase in the number of positive COVID cases in Alberta, Alberta Health Services (AHS) has changed the system of notifying people who have been in close contact with an individual who tests positive.
AHS continues to notify close contacts if people are in a priority group, which includes health care workers, minors, or people who work or live in within communal facilities, which does not include staff accommodation at this time.
“Parents will still be notified by AHS if their child is exposed at school,” Adamo said.
