By Chris Brown

Don't stigmatize, says Hinshaw

COVID-19 cases up in Brooks, Medicine Hat

Apr 27, 2020 | 3:44 PM

Alberta now has 4,696 cases of COVID-19 after a jump of 216 cases in the past 24 hours. The South Zone has 643 cases, an increase of 44 since Sunday’s update. Brooks has 41 of those new cases and Medicine Hat has two of them.

Of Brooks’ total of 581 cases, 568 are considered active and 11 are considered recovered. The number of deaths remains at two.

“There are many factors with respect to the spread of the virus in Brooks. There are households that don’t necessarily have a lot of space so there are many people that are all living together in the same household,” Dr. Deena Hinshaw said. “It’s for that reason that we want to make sure that there are hotel facilities available so if someone is a case of COVID or is a close contact and are not able to stay apart from others in their home, we want to make sure that we’re supporting them and offering space that is safe for them to go to and to isolate away from others in their household.”

Hinshaw said her colleagues at the local level are leading the way in supporting the Brooks community.

“The important thing that we’re doing is to make sure that there is every single support available to stop transmission in every place where transmission is happening,” referencing masks, spaces for isolation and offering supportive and educational materials in a variety of languages.

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“The important thing for me is not to stigmatize people who have COVID but to support them. Because the more that people feel ashamed or feel targeted … the less likely they are to come forward and then we lose the chance to control the spread.”

Of Medicine Hat’s 27 cases, 16 are considered active and 11 recovered.

So far 1,664 Albertans have recovered from the virus, Hinshaw said in her daily update. There have also been two additional deaths in the province, bringing that total to 75.

There are currently 87 people hospitalized, with 20 of those in the ICU.

“These cases illustrate that infection with this virus has serious consequences for many people,” said the province’s chief medical officer of health.

She said families are grieving those that have died and others are worried about people in intensive care and hospital.

“These are the reason we cannot give up on our work to prevent spread. This virus can only be defeated by our collective efforts to protect each other.”

Hinshaw again spoke about the number of summer events being cancelled due to the public health restrictions on gatherings of more than 15 people.

“No decision has been made on when we will be able to relax this limit on gatherings,” she said. “But it is something we will continue to monitor as we see the results of our collective efforts to prevent the spread paying off.”

There will be an easing of restrictions when it is safe to do so, said Hinshaw.

“Please stay the course and protect your friends, family and neighbours as they are protecting you.”

Hinshaw said Albertans can take collective pride in how Albertans have done to flatten the curve when considering what the modelling released in early April showed.

She said everyone should feel proud of what we’ve done together but that when public health guidelines are eased it must be done in a way that we don’t rebound and see the modelling come true at a later time.

The 458 cases in Alberta continuing care facilities and four discovered over the weekend in Calgary’s homeless population are a concern to Hinshaw.

The County of Newell has five active cases.

In Cypress County, they are reporting eight cases of COVID-19, three active and five recovered.

The County of Forty Mile and Municipal District of Taber each have two confirmed cases both listed as recovered.

The City of Lethbridge has 13 active cases, five listed as active and eight recovered. Lethbridge County has one recorded recovered case.

Read the full April 27 update from the province here.