OLDS — Seven Town of Olds staff members are isolating this week as COVID-19 cases surge in the area, according to Jennifer Lutz, the town’s acting director of emergency management.
Lutz informed council members during town council’s April 12 meeting, held via Zoom.
She said at least one COVID-19 variant is circulating in Olds and area and as a result, cases have been soaring, as they have in the province as a whole.
As of April 12, there were 50 positive COVID cases in the Olds local geographic area, up from 32 on April 8. On Jan. 6, at the height of the second COVID wave in the community, the area recorded 39.
Lutz said 41 cases had been recorded in Mountain View County, up from 25 when council was previously updated in late March.
As cases began to soar, the town re-activated its Incident Command Post (ICP) on April 6 in order to coordinate the town’s response
“It was actually just shy of a week ago but it feels like weeks with what’s been happening,” Lutz said.
“We’re doing our best to provide information on what to do with variants, but as (the province’s chief medical health officer) Dr. (Deena) Hinshaw says, you can just about expect that the variant strain has taken over now and that’s what we’re dealing with in our area as well.
“And for everybody watching council – the public watching and staff – we definitely appreciate and understand the COVID fatigue and we know this is very difficult on small business, on health-care workers, people who’ve had cases, people who’ve been personally impacted, teachers, parents, kids.
“And as your local government, we definitely get it and we are doing the very best we can to support people,” she added.
Lutz said people need to understand that the COVID-19 virus doesn’t spread in a linear fashion -- it doubles, then doubles again and so on.
“We are in that exponential growth stage. It’s not two plus two anymore. It’s two times two, times two, times two,” she said.
Lutz said town officials are working hard to liaise with businesses and pharmacies in order to support them as best they can during this wave.
She said the town’s municipal enforcement officers have been working very closely with RCMP and Alberta Health Services officials regarding compliance with COVID-19 restrictions -- and that compliance has been pretty good.
"Mostly it’s been quite quiet and they’re finding that people are adhering to public health measures, which is great,” she said.
Coun. Wanda Blatz was among several councillors who praised Lutz and all town staff for “working so diligently to try and keep each other and our community safe.”
Blatz said those who are looking for more information on the situation can find it on the town’s website which also has a link to provincial sources of information.
