Grande Prairie Mayor Jackie Clayton says with the recent uptick in cases, she is urging residents to do their part to keep down the spread of COVID-19. With the active case count showing 304 as of March 31st, Clayton says now is not the time to ditch personal responsibility or put anyone else at risk.
“Any time there is an increased number of cases in the city it’s to be a concern for our residents,” she says. “From our understanding, the variant is in the province and is quite contagious, however, there have been some small outbreaks in the region, and both ours and the County [of Grande Prairie’s] numbers are both climbing right now.”
Mayor Clayton adds the city is hopeful for the next stages of the reopening strategy to kick into effect sooner than later but admits they, like residents, are waiting to hear from the province.
“AHS works with administration to get them up to speed as quick as they can,” she says. “At this point, we don’t have any information that says what is the next step from the government in regard to relaxing or increasing the regulations… however we are optimistic that we will have some information from them shortly,” she adds.
Clayton adds heading into the long weekend, it remains important to abide by the provincial regulations and guidelines, which include hand washing, mask-wearing, and social distancing.