The topic of masks still leaves many people divided, but they are recommended by Alberta’s top Doctor and health authorities when social distancing isn’t possible.

In August, Airdrie introduced its mandatory mask bylaw. The bylaw will only go into effect if the City of Airdrie is placed under an enhanced status by the province, something that hasn't happened in any jurisdiction in Alberta to date.

With a rise in provincial cases, some people have wondered exactly how and when that status is triggered. The answer is not as simple as some might want.

“Enhanced Status is not tied to a specific case number or threshold,” an Alberta Health spokesperson said in a statement to Discover Airdrie. “It will be determined by local health officials when risk levels require enhanced public health measures to control the spread.”

That makes enhanced status very different from the watch status, which would happen if Airdrie ended up with a rate of 50 cases per 100,000 people. Airdrie is currently in ‘open status’ meaning the province has determined there is a low-level risk of infection and no additional restrictions are in place, outside of those that exist under phase two of the relaunch strategy.

When the City was debating the implementation of the mask bylaw, city officials explained it this way:

“For example, if a big family of 50 people went to Mexico on a holiday and al came back with COVID, you’d all of the sudden have 50 cases, but the risk is lower because it’s not spreading around the community. If you have 50 cases and people are getting it from different stores around the community there’s a high risk because clearly, it’s spreading around your community,” explained city communications manager Jill Iverson.

“So enhanced is looked at in a very local context of what is happening in your community, is there a big risk of it spreading around or is there a high number of cases because it’s very isolated? There isn’t a certain way to say here’s when we get to enhanced, you really have to look at your community as a whole and understand what’s going on to know if you need to get to that level.”

The specific information in related to where and how cases have been contracted and the contact tracing information is all confidential and reviewed by the provincial health authorities who would have the say in moving the city to an enhanced status.

Alberta Health adds it would only move to an enhanced status in consultation with local governments.

“Discussions with local governments and other community partners would occur, as appropriate, prior to any move to Enhanced Status. There have been no regions moved to Enhanced Status to date,” said the statement from Alberta Health.

As of Tuesday, there were 19 active cases of the virus reported in the City of Airdrie and 92 recoveries.

 

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