OLDS — Mayor Michael Muzychka is praising residents of Olds and area for following COVID-19 restrictions, indicating that’s why the area now has fewer active cases, down from 39 a few weeks ago.
“I know everybody’s a little stir crazy and everybody’s a little housebound, but your efforts are not going unnoticed in our statistics, so it’s good to see our area down to the numbers we’re at,” Muzychka said during council’s Jan. 25 meeting.
Jennifer Lutz, a deputy director of the town’s Incident Command Post (ICP) echoed that thought.
“We reached 39, so that was a concern, but (we’re) back down to 12 (as of Jan. 25) and that’s got to be due to the efforts of people following health restrictions,” she said.
As of the end of day on Feb. 3, active cases in the Olds local geographic area had dropped to three.
Lutz said if residents need to self-isolate and are unable to do so in their own home, they can call 211. The town is willing to work with them and local hotels or motels to ensure that they’re able to do so.
She said as part of the overall effort to keep the community safe, during the pandemic, the town’s peace officers have gone to a seven-day work schedule.
Lutz said the town received one complaint in regard to the Let Them Play protest, held outside Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills MLA Nathan Cooper’s Olds office on Jan. 18. That protest attracted about 30 people.
However, she said that complaint was rescinded because “the business owner wanted to allow them to continue.”
Lutz said Larry Wright, the ICP’s business liaison worker, has been working with the town’s economic development secretariat to provide information for local businesses in regard to the pandemic. He has also been doing interviews with news media to get information out.
Lutz said so far, COVID has proven to be “a slow moving emergency or disaster.”
As a result, she said, that’s provided the town with a great opportunity to train people on how to implement emergency management.
“It’s not taking a lot of day-to-day worktime, but they are learning the system, which is good,” she said.
