Brooks Mayor Barry Morishita talks about the city's second testing facility, delayed business relaunch on Wednesday. (CHAT News photo)

By Alex McCuaig

Second testing blitz this week

Testing ramps up again in Brooks as city sees a delayed full relaunch

May 13, 2020 | 4:31 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Much of the city of Brooks has slowed on the eve of Alberta’s economic relaunch. A relaunch strategy that will take a little bit longer for the Centennial City to be fully realized.

But while business is – and will continue to be – sluggish in Brooks as the province delays opening of restaurants and hairstylists until May 25, a steady stream of cars were once again taking advantage of the second asymptomatic drive-thru testing blitz.

Traffic was slower than the first asymptomatic testing session held over three days in April which saw 3,500 community members tested. An estimated 2,000 residents are expected to take part in the second testing session that started on Tuesday, based on the more than 700 people tested during the first day.

The importance of COVID-19 testing isn’t lost on those living in or around the city.

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“You have to take advantage of something like this,” said Brooks resident Henry Zdun who was lined up to get tested along with his wife Barb. “There has been enough people who have come down with the virus, there has been enough death around the world, in North America – certainly Canada and Alberta – that you would not want to be the cause of it and you certainly get it yourself or spread it to anyone else.”

Brooks saw a spike in infections following Easter long weekend with more than 1,000 residents found to have the coronavirus in the city of 14,000. That’s one reason why Brooks Mayor Barry Morishita would like to see a third testing session in the city following this upcoming long weekend.

Morishita said that due to the success in identifying about 300 cases of COVID-19 from individuals who weren’t showing obvious symptoms, the need for a second testing session was something the community wanted to see to stem the outbreak in the community.

“Unless the symptoms came on in the next few days, (those residents) wouldn’t have been self-isolating and I think that helped in slowing down the spread,” said Morishita.

He added, “I think more testing is necessary here and I think more testing is necessary everywhere. If we have capacity to be testing, we should be testing as much as possible. I think it allows a community to understand what is actually going on and for its residents then to do the things they need to do.”

As for the delayed relaunch of restaurants and hairstylists, Morishita said earlier Wednesday that he was anticipating such a move and such decisions are being made based on the best science available right now.

AHS South Zone chief zone officer Katherine Chubbs says the testing in Brooks will allow medical officials, “continue to understand how the disease is transmitted through the community and the breadth of the disease spread in Brooks.”

While contact tracing results based on testing in Brooks revealed some of the known ways to acquire the virus, there were also cases where it wasn’t clear, said Chubbs.

“Sometimes we don’t know exactly what the contact is,” she said. “It just speaks to how easy it is to transmit the COVID virus in our community and why it is so important our community members pay attention to the rules that are in place.”

Chubbs added that AHS is proactively in contact with other food producers and processors in the South Zone regarding the need to ensure safe workplaces.