Calgary declares state of emergency in response to COVID-19 spread

#Calgary; #StateOfEmergency; #CoronavirusPandemic

Calgary, Mar 16 (Canadian-Media): Declaration of a state of emergency in the city of Calgary due doubling of coronavirus pandemic in two days resulted in closure of city-operated recreation centres, pools and arenas, some partner facilities like YMCAs, Calgary Public Library branches all K-12 schools, preschools and post-secondary institutes until further notice, media reports said

Naheed Nanshi. Image credit: Facebook page

The measures at the city emergency operations centre jointly announced by Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, city manager David Duckworth and Calgary's Emergency Management Agency chief Tom Sampson effective at 12:01 a.m. MT Monday.

We have enacted a State of Local Emergency. This allows CEMA Chief Tom Sampson to make the decisions necessary to help flatten the curve.

We are closing City-owned and operated rec facilities, as well as those operated by our partners, and the Calgary Public Library branches.

— Naheed Nenshi (@nenshi) March 16, 2020

The reasons for issuing the state of emergency, said the officials were due to the confirmation of 14 new cases of COVID-19 in the city of Calgary in the last 24 hours taking Alberta's total up to 56 and the occurrence of the first instances of the case spread through the community, rather than by travel or contact with someone sick.

Added to this were the unknown sources of the two new cases in Calgary with the likelihood of other undiagnosed cases in Alberta, said Alberta's chief medical officer Sunday.

The restaurants, bars and cafes, though not ordered to be closed, were required to keep their capacity to either less than half their capacity or fewer than 250 people, while the Calgary grocery stores, public transit, shelters, shopping centers, pharmacies, casinos and the airport will remain open as usual but but employees are encouraged to work from home.

Declaration of the last state of emergency in Calgary was due to severe flooding in the summer of 2013.