COVID-19 was first reported in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo on Thursday, March 19, 2020.
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No official confirmation on the number of cases has been given by Alberta Health Services.
Mayor Don Scott said he is treating it as a confirmed case and the owner of Maxx Dental reached out to him directly.
“He is extremely concerned and extremely upset. He has assumed AHS has already reached out to us.”
The owner indicated to Don that he his staff member who attended the dental conference in Vancouver immediately self isolated when they felt symptoms and that he was glad they did but wish he, himself could have done more.
“He told me he loves our region, he loves Fort McMurray and wants to do everything he can to support our region.”
He was told AHS was going to contact all the patients who might have been impact and all of their staff are now in self isolation.
Mayor Scott says they are in touch with AHS.
“They haven’t been as forthcoming with information as we like, because they haven’t officially confirmed the local cases, but we understand they are overwhelmed.”
He added that he has tremendous support for our healthcare workers and our doctors.
Mayor Scott highlighted that the RMWB is ready to address any crisis, after going through the 2016 wildfire.
“We can’t as a municipality sit around and wait for other levels over government to take steps. We know their busy, we know their overwhelmed. If we need to act decisively, we’re going to act decisively and take steps. As a community we’ve been through lots of challenges before and we can come together.”
When it comes to emergency management, Scott says no option is off the table.
The Municipality is continuing to look at their emergency management bylaw to make sure everything is in place along with the continuity government pandemic plan.
This afternoon they will be contacting Alberta Emergency Management to learn more about the ramifications for declaring a state of emergency.
