OLDS – The Town of Olds has activated its emergency operations centre (EOC) in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, officials said Tuesday.
Set up at the Olds Emergency Services building, the centre will be used to bring emergency responders together, either in person or through conference calls, to coordinate future responses, said CAO Mike Merritt.
“There are not people sitting around the table, and we will probably avoid that as much as possible in this scenario,” said Merritt. “Most of the people are dealing with it through conference calls. We want to be up and running so if we do have to heighten our responsibilities it will be much more easier to do with the EOC activated.”
Planning to activate the EOC began about a week ago, he said.
The town of is not considering a local state of emergency at this time, said Merritt.
Jennifer Lutz is the deputy director emergency management with the town.
“Activating the EOC is just more of a formal step that support the Town of Olds in its coordination with neighbouring jurisdictions as well as the provincial government to centralize all organizational conversations around planning and monitoring of COVID-19,” said Lutz.
