By Troy Gillard

State of local emergency remains

Red Deer to continue following province’s lead on pandemic measures

Apr 23, 2020 | 2:25 PM

Officials with The City of Red Deer say now is not the time to “take the foot off the gas in the fight against COVID-19.”

On Monday, the City declared a renewed state of local emergency through April 27, and will continue to do so weekly until the pandemic has ended.

That’s despite the fact that as of Wednesday, Red Deer has just one active case of COVID-19 to go with 31 recoveries (as of Apr. 22) since the start of the outbreak.

“We’re very proud of the fact that cases are low in Red Deer, and we’re very proud of our local response, and certainly proud of our citizens in all of the efforts you have done to be diligent and to take precautions,” Mayor Tara Veer said during a community update on Wednesday.

“However, it’s absolutely imperative that we continue to do our part to flatten the curve in central Alberta. There are many examples of communities — certainly in Alberta there are recent cases, but across the country and internationally — who thought that they had it under control (and) dialed back some of their restrictions early and then found themselves in a precarious situation.”

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“We have received some reports of people playing basketball and using our baseball diamonds. I must stress to you this cannot happen,” said City Manager Allan Seabrooke. “The facilities remain closed, along with the playground structures and the outdoor gyms. We’ve come so far these past weeks in limiting the spread of this virus here in Red Deer and we don’t want to let up now so this pandemic can take a grip on us.”

Open spaces, trails and dog parks in Red Deer remain open provided residents adhere to physical distancing measures.

Veer says The City of Red Deer will continue to work closely with the provincial government and Alberta Health Services, and follow the recommendations from Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, in its decision making.

“I have no doubt that we’ll come through this stronger,” Veer said. “Our goal is stay ahead of the curve as a city.”

Premier Jason Kenney said on Wednesday that while the low number of hospitalizations in the province (70) from COVID-19 provides reason for cautious optimism, Alberta needs to remain vigilant and follow public safety orders in order to, “look at cautiously restarting the economy as soon as possible on the advice of our public health officials.”

Kenney said he planned to meet today (Thursday) with the province’s relaunch working group and hopes to release more details next week.