By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

Starting Friday

City of Red Deer activating Emergency Operations Centre for COVID-19

Mar 12, 2020 | 5:08 PM

The City of Red Deer says it is taking the health of citizens, staff and visitors seriously as COVID-19 (coronavirus) continues to spread around the world.

While there are no reported cases in Red Deer as of Thursday (the lone reported case in the AHS Central Zone thus far is in Vegreville), the City says it is preparing and planning for how to address it, if or when the outbreak arrives here.

“The City’s focus continues to be on good hygiene practice, including frequent hand washing. We know that in certain situations it is difficult to get to soap and water, so for those reasons, the public health recommendation is to use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer,” says Karen Mann, Emergency Management Director.

“We are focusing on areas of high traffic where we serve the public, and while we do have existing hand sanitizers in a lot of recreation and culture locations, people can imagine that it can be quite difficult right now to get extra supplies. We are working with our departments where hand sanitizer is needed to put our existing stock into those locations.”

Mann says that on Friday, the City will activate its Emergency Operations Centre at Level 1, meaning a public information officer will be in place.

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“This occurs when things are considered to be a real emergency, or when there’s a situation that may have impacts on businesses continuity, or if there is an emerging threat or situation that requires enhanced monitoring,” Mann explains. “This allows us to centralize the conversation organizationally around planning and monitoring. We’ve been doing that already, so this is more of just a formal step.”

As it relates to City facilities, that includes buses, which Mann says are being cleaned at the end of each day, from front to back with a cleaning solution. Operators wipe the buses when they come on shift and during changeovers. Buses no not have public use hand sanitizer stations on them.

There is also Red Deer’s homeless population to consider.

“The City is in contact with our agency partners. Shelters and homeless serving agencies will be supported by both local and provincial health and social support structures as required,” says Mann. “Conversations regarding business continuity and pandemic type response planning started earlier this week. Direction for appropriate response measures are still being driven by Alberta Health and AHS.”

At Westerner Park, the final three home games for the Red Deer Rebels have been paused following a decision by the Canadian Hockey League suspended its season.

Several other events scheduled to take place at Westerner Park over the coming weeks have been cancelled, including this weekend’s Naughty But Nice Taboo Sex Show and next weekend’s Central Alberta Family Expo. As of 5 p.m. Thursday there’s no word whether the EG Auctions 14th Annual Spring Collector Car Auction will be going ahead this weekend as scheduled.