COVID-19 update: Oct. 30

Highlights:

• Mandatory 15-person limit on all social gatherings (down from 50-person limit)
• New voluntary measures for Calgary
• Changes to the symptoms list
• Halloween reminders

Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, announced some mandatory and voluntary measures for the Cities of Calgary and Edmonton as the number of cases continue to rise.

Mandatory measures for Cities of Calgary and Edmonton:

• 15-person limit on all social gatherings:
• Parties; special event celebrations, such as retirement events or baby showers; wedding and funeral receptions; and banquets.
• This limit does not apply to structured events where socializing is not the purpose of the activity. This includes restaurants, theatres, worship services, wedding ceremonies, conferences, funeral services or trade shows. Current gathering limits and prevention measures as outlined by official guidance remains in place.
• The temporary limit will be reassessed at the end of November. It will be lifted when we are able to bring new case numbers down and sufficiently reduce the spread.

Voluntary measures for City of Calgary:

• Wear a mask in all indoor work settings, except when alone in a workspace and office or cubicle where you are safely distanced from others, or an appropriate barrier is in place.
• Limit your cohorts to no more than three: your core household, your school, and one other sport or social cohort.
• Young children who attend child-care could be part of four cohorts, given that child care settings have not been a high risk for spread.

Changes to the symptoms list for Albertans under the age of 18 

• Runny nose and sore throat will be removed from the list of symptoms that require mandatory isolation for children. This change is only for those who have not had a known exposure. If a child has had close contact with a COVID case in the last 14 days, then a runny nose or sore throat is still enough to recommend testing, and they would still need to continue to stay at home in self-isolation.
• A more targeted checklist, one that takes into account the total number of symptoms that a child may have. Any child who has even one of the core isolation symptoms – which are cough, fever, shortness of breath, and a new core isolation symptom of loss of taste or smell – must still isolate for 10 days or have a negative test result and resolved symptoms before resuming activities.  
• However, for all other COVID-19 symptoms, Alberta is shifting to a more strategic approach.
  • Starting on Monday, if a child has only one of any of the other symptoms on the list, they should stay home and monitor for 24 hours.
  • If their symptom is improving after 24 hours, testing is not necessary and they can return to normal activities when they feel well enough. 
  • However, if the child has two or more of the symptoms on the list…then testing is recommended and they should stay home until the symptoms go away or they test negative for COVID-19. For example:
    • If a child has just a headache, they should stay home for the day and, if things improve, they can return to school as soon as they’re feeling able to do so. But if they have a headache AND a runny nose, they should stay home and either get tested or stay home until the symptoms go away completely.
• All other Albertans 18 years and over will continue to use the Alberta Health daily checklist already online.

Halloween

• After every holiday during the pandemic, we have seen a rise in the number of cases one to two weeks later. Therefore, it is very important to follow the guidance AHS has provided which can be found here: Halloween during COVID-19 | Alberta.ca
• If you are trick or treating, keep it to your household or close cohort and please ensure your children wear a non-medical mask under their costume.
• If you are sick with even mild symptoms, please don’t go out and don’t give out candy either.
• Stick to your family and your cohort, no matter what you’re doing.
• This is not the year for large Halloween parties. Remember that there is a mandatory 15-person limit for social gatherings – including parties for Calgary and Edmonton.

Again, if you have any questions regarding COVID-19 click here: novel coronavirus (COVID-19) | Alberta Health Services or call HealthLink 811.

For any other questions, please email emergency@yyc.com

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!