By Chris Brown

City officials keeping an eye on COVID numbers, regulations locally and provincially

Aug 4, 2021 | 4:55 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – At the same time active cases of COVID-19 are rising in Medicine Hat and Alberta-wide, the province is making significant changes to how it’s managing the pandemic going forward.

Some provincial changes went into effect July 29. Quarantine is now only recommended for close contacts of positive cases instead of mandatory and contact tracers are no longer notifying close contacts.

READ MORE: Alberta’s top doctor apologizes for ‘confusion, fear or anger’ over lifting of COVID-19 protocols

On Aug. 16 the provincial mandatory mask order will be lifted and people will no longer have to isolate after a positive COVID-19 test.

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City officials are closely watching case numbers and what’s happening at the provincial level with regard to mask mandates.

Merrick Brown, the city’s director of emergency management, notes hospitalizations and ICU admissions are staying level even as cases go up

“So based on the province’s reasoning for actually putting a number of these restrictions in place 16 months ago was very much to protect the health care capacity and health care facilities for that matter,” Brown says. “So with council or elected officials putting anything additional in place, discussions haven’t occurred at that level at this point.”

He also says discussions on masking on transit, taxis or rideshares haven’t occurred yet. The province will lift those masking orders on Aug. 16.

Brown does say that certain measures will remain in place at public facilities.

“We did obviously take down the capacity restrictions but we still have additional controls — remaining in place such as plexiglass, signage, sanitization things like that, increased cleaning,” he says. “There’s no intention of removing any of those in the near future.”

Brown says vaccines are key to keeping everyone safe.

“The main reason that we’re in this position right now is vaccinations,” he says. “So all those individuals that got vaccinated, those are the ones that are very safe right now so in order to keep all of us safe, keep your family safe, keep yourself safe, get vaccinated.”