OLDS — The town has decreased its Incident Response Centre (IRC) staff, now that COVID cases have fallen sharply.
As of Feb. 22, there were only three active COVID cases in the Olds local geographic area, down from a high of 39 just after Christmas.
During a Feb. 8 town council meeting, IRC director Brian Powell said plans called for the IRC staff, numbering “in the teens” at that point to fall by to about six people later that week.
“You will still have the team around and we will still be providing some council updates as we go,” Powell said.
“However, our need to have the entire orchestra in the audience is not necessary and we certainly do not want to have an emergency management team in place to duplicate work and duplicate meetings. That’s not the goal of the emergency management group with the town.”
Powell said ICP staffers remain watchful though, because although cases have been dropping in Olds and across the province, that can change quickly, so things like hospitalization counts may not tell the whole story.
“The barometers that are there are not instant, they’re not instantaneous like a speedometer reads on a car," he said. “It does take time, and a lot of times this type of disease is essentially easily transmitted and easily spread, so a lot of times, we’re hearing the information after the fact and so the overall trends are the important piece.
“And more importantly what will be the trends of what’s going to happen once some of the restrictions are lifted? Everyone knows in this agency or this group that our cases will climb. But will they climb to a measurable level that we can handle?
“And do they have the capacity and the bench strength to be able to react quickly and appropriately and maybe consider regional inputs or not?”
Although there has been a clamouring for COVID restrictions to be implemented on a regional basis, Powell said “the jury remains out” on whether that’s the right strategy.
He said for example, once restrictions on hockey arenas were tightened in Calgary “it was a matter of minutes – not hours – before phones started to ring, looking for ice space in Olds because Calgary was closed.”
He also noted new variants of the disease, now found in Alberta, are much more easily transmitted than the initial version.
On a positive note, Powell said as of Nov. 8 there were no COVID cases in Olds College or Mountain View Seniors' Housing. He said Sundial Growers is doing “very well with just some isolation at this moment in time.”
Powell said peace officers have found a “very high degree of public compliance” with COVID restrictions among local residents.
He said town officials have worked with local businesses to ensure there’s space for international travellers who have to quarantine in the community, should that be necessary.
“All in all, everyone has been doing a remarkably good job,” Powell said. “We thank the public for being so compliant on this stuff. We definitely want this to come to an end and you’re doing a great job just hanging in there.”
Mayor Michael Muzychka and chief administrative officer Michael Merritt praised Powell and his staff for the job they’ve done dealing with the COVID outbreak.
Merritt noted the situation is constantly changing, forcing town staff to adjust their plans frequently.
