Developments with the COVID-19 coronavirus are happening daily in Calgary, in other parts of Alberta and Canada. The information below was gathered from reliable public health sources at the time of our newsletter submission deadline. Alberta Health has now created their own webpage dedicated to distributing accurate information about the virus. You can also get reliable information from CBC TV or radio, or CTV TV, or similar mainstream media. Unfortunately, there have been multiple instances of inaccurate and potentially dangerous advice and information shared on various social media platforms and other sites. We urge you NOT to rely on information unless it is provided by or confirmed by Health Canada’s website, Alberta Health’s website, or by multiple mainstream media outlets.
What’s the difference between isolation and quarantine?
Isolation and quarantine are different terms. Isolation applies when someone is sick and is being kept apart from others to prevent the spread of an infectious disease. Quarantine applies to separation and restrictions on movements of people who are not currently sick but may have been exposed to an infectious disease. Those people are in quarantine while they watch for symptoms, or to prevent their exposure to others who are sick.
What’s the difference between social distancing and physical distancing?
Social distancing and physical distancing both refer to staying physically apart from others. This includes a wide variety of separation strategies such as staying 2 metres apart from non-household members when you are outside your home, working from home instead of at an office, and limiting the number of people allowed to gather in any one space. Many health organizations are using the term “physical” distancing instead of “social” distancing because we all still need to remain socially connected, even though we need to be physically distant for now.
What you can do to try to protect yourself from getting sick with COVID-19?
Stay home. Public health experts have advised everyone to stay home as much as possible and to work from home if you can. That means we all need to limit trips outside the house to the fewest possible essential trips to get groceries and other necessary supplies for our homes. The fewer trips we make outside our home, the fewer chances the virus has to spread to others.
Maintain your distance. We have all been advised to do our best to stay at least 2 metres away from others when we are shopping for groceries or going for walks to limit the chance the virus has of spreading from one person to another. You have likely seen the measures taken by grocery stores and other retail locations, such as sanitizing carts, installing plexiglass screens and markings on the floors, to try to limit close contact between customers, and between customers and staff. These are designed to protect both you and the staff at the store. We all also have our own role to play to respect these new rules both at the stores as well as on the sidewalks & pathways when we are out for a walk. In addition, most Canadians are now back from travel outside Canada, but for those who have newly returned to Alberta, they are now legally required to quarantine at home for 14 days while they watch for symptoms of the virus. That means they cannot do their own grocery shopping and cannot walk their dogs in a public park.
Wash your hands. The other main piece of advice public health experts have given is to ensure we are all washing our hands for at least 20 seconds to wash off any traces of the virus we may have picked up. We should be washing our hands every time after returning from being outside the home, after we use the washroom, before we eat, and after we blow our noses. Here is a YouTube video that shows a health care worker, using paint as a visual to show how well you need to spread the soap on your hands, to completely clean them (make sure you use soap to wash your hands like this person uses the paint).
What should you do if you get sick?
You are now legally required to stay home for at least 10 days if you are showing any symptoms that could be due to COVID-19 unless these symptoms are a result of a pre-existing condition. The symptoms that require you to stay home are fever, cough, shortness of breath, runny nose, or sore throat. If you develop any of these symptoms (and they aren’t due to a pre-existing condition like allergies or COPD), you need to complete the online assessment tool before you can access a COVID-19 testing location. The assessment tool can be found here.
What is HPCA doing during the COVID-19 pandemic?
The Highland Park Community Association Board is following the instructions of Alberta Health, the Province of Alberta, and the City of Calgary. As such, our hall is closed to all programs except Next which is offering childcare to families of essential workers in our main hall basement, and the Good Food Box, which continues to run on the original schedule with new physical distancing and cleaning measures in place. We have begun using video-conferencing for Board meetings. We have installed hand sanitizer dispensers in key locations in our hall, and have cancelled or postponed some of our events (see the Upcoming Events list in this newsletter), and we will continue to evaluate whether or how our planned community events can proceed later this year. We have created a COVID-19 Support Group page on our Highland Park Community Association Facebook page, and we are also sharing educational resources on our Facebook page for parents who are helping their children with their schooling at home.
Finally, we have partnered with our City of Calgary social worker, Jennifer DiMarzo, and Lauren Mangion of Carya, to create a Block Connector program. This will be a way for neighbours to connect on a hyper-local level within Highland Park, such as those neighbours on one or two adjacent blocks, to share reliable sources of information, how to access resources, and offer support to each other during the COVID-19 pandemic. We think this will be a great way for all of us to feel more connected when we all need to remain physically distant from each other. You can sign up to participate in this program by filling out this secure survey we have developed. The information you provide will only be used for our community’s Block Connector program, and won’t be shared for other purposes.
We can get through this, but we all need to work together to keep each other safe!
Written by Anne Naumann, HPCA Vicepresident