Coronavirus (COVID-19) Local News

“It is a busy time for a development in Banff and that’s a good thing for us that our commercial sector has such confidence in recovery. These significant numbers in development permits and building permits bode well for long-term prospects for our community economically.”

The Town of Banff is hosting walk-in vaccination clinics on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 to encourage more people to get their booster shots.

“We are asking the province of Alberta to take back this jurisdictional responsibility to provide the resources and coordination of this desperately needed effort to fight our health crisis," said Banff Mayor Corrie DiManno

“Anyone who has had a vaccination shot will be reviewed when they come into the office and we will use the QR code and they will be allowed to come into the office. We’re trying to achieve a balance for people who volunteer or work for the MD, dealing with the COVID crisis right now.”

Recent social media posts have fed into the notion that swabbing the throat with a COVID-19 rapid antigen test kit might yield more accurate results against the Omicron variant than only testing for virus in the nostrils.

The municipalities of Banff and Canmore have been in conversations on the potential for support of each other for emergency fire response and other essential services, if required, due to staffing issues associated with COVID-19.

“I do think it’s a provincial responsibility in terms of these costs, but given that we won’t see it in the near future from the province I think we should move ahead ourselves and organize another vaccination clinic.”

“Given the COVID-19 rates in the valley, we remain deeply concerned with the increasing numbers and our capacity to keep classes and schools open for your children, due to staffing shortages," said CRPS superintendent Chris MacPhee.

“We recognize that there are significant financial challenges on the Town’s budget; however, we do think that collectively the municipalities in the Bow Valley should collaborate on examining the potential to build a field house in the valley."

“With case counts far exceeding anything we have ever seen before, the sheer volume of cases means that daily hospitalizations are beginning to escalate,” said Dr. Deena Hinshaw.