COVID-19 Live Updates: News on coronavirus in Calgary for March 18

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With news on COVID-19 happening rapidly, we’ve created this page to bring you our latest stories and information on the outbreak in and around Calgary.

What’s happening now

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My COVID Story: How have you been impacted by coronavirus?

Postmedia is looking to speak with people who may have been impacted by COVID-19 here in Alberta.  Have you undergone a travel-related quarantine? Have you received your vaccine, and if so did you feel any side effects? Have you changed your life for the better because of the pandemic? Send us an email at reply@calgaryherald.com to tell us your experience, or send us a message via this form.

Read our ongoing coverage of personal stories arising from the pandemic.

Pharmacies in and around Calgary offering COVID-19 vaccine

This map shows 53 pharmacies in Calgary, Chestermere and Airdrie offering the COVID-19 vaccine. More locations will be added in the coming days, according to the provincial government. Appointments are still required and can be booked by contacting the participating pharmacies. Details on eligibility and booking can be found here.

Edmonton bakery owner frustrated employees were denied Alberta’s critical worker benefit

An Edmonton bakery owner says he was surprised to find his application for Alberta’s critical worker benefit program denied despite the government listing bakers as eligible.

Simon Underwood, co-owner of Doughnut Party, says his attempt to get his workers the one-time $1,200 payments was turned down because doughnuts are not considered as essential as bread.

“Where is this particular piece of criteria coming from, and why is it being used to disqualify our staff?” said Underwood, who added if the program had used all the money, that would be fine — but that’s not what he was told.

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Alberta sees sharp rise in COVID-19 variants

Alberta reported a new daily high for variant cases on Thursday as a decision looms for the province’s health officials on whether to further loosen COVID-19 restrictions next week.

Still, chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw wouldn’t say whether Alberta has entered a third wave of the pandemic, instead asking Albertans to continue adhering to public health guidelines during this “critical time.”

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GraceLife pastor to spend at least another weekend in jail

Pastor James Coates will be spending at least another weekend in jail.

Alberta’s provincial court issued a news release Thursday contradicting a claim from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), which is representing the GraceLife Church pastor.

The JCCF on Wednesday said it expected Coates to be released from jail this week after reaching an agreement with the Crown to withdraw one of the charges Coates faced for violating COVID-19 restrictions.

The organization said it expected the case would be dealt with Friday, which would have allowed Coates to preach at GraceLife this Sunday.

But on Thursday, Alberta’s provincial court said: “Contrary to reports that have been circulated by parties involved in the case, there will be no court proceedings involving James Coates on March 19, 2021.”

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505 new cases, one death; everyone in Phase 2A of vaccine rollout eligible tomorrow

Alberta chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw provided an update on the COVID-19 pandemic Thursday afternoon.

• 418,663 doses of vaccine administered
• All Albertans in Phase 2A eligible to book appointment tomorrow morning (all Albertans born 1956 or earlier; Inuit, Métis and First Nations people born 1971 or earlier)
• Booking tool offline from 7:30-8 a.m. to prepare
• 505 new cases of COVID-19 on 10,934 tests; 4.8% positivity rate
• 264 in hospital; 43 in ICUs
• One additional death; 1,957 total
• 5,084 active cases; 133,086 recovered
• 91 new variant cases; variants 12% of active cases
• Active alerts or outbreaks in 297 schools; 1,241 cases in these schools since Jan. 11

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You can watch it below.

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Fairview Baptist Church ticketed again

A Calgary church has been ticketed again for violating COVID-19 restrictions.

This is the third instance that peace officers have issued tickets to Fairview Baptist Church; it was handed out two tickets last week and another in January. The church’s pastor Tim Stephens was also fined $1,200 in January.

The City of Calgary said the most recent public health order tickets issued were “related to social distancing and gathering over capacity.” The church was issued those two tickets on Monday, the city said, bringing the total number of tickets the church has received to five.

“Any additional actions taken for multiple violations will be led by AHS (Alberta Health Services),” the city said in a news release Thursday. “Community peace officers will continue to work alongside AHS and CPS (Calgary Police Services) to investigate complaints surrounding this location.”

Stephens said after holding services at an undisclosed location for a month in January and February, the congregation decided to return to the normal southeast Calgary location to resume celebrating their faith, which they have for several weeks now.

Stephens said earlier in March that the church planned to hold services “indefinitely.”

The city issued four other tickets in the last week for violations of the public health act, according to the release. There have been 204 such tickets issued since Nov. 24, 2020.

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The city also said it issued 27 tickets in the last week to people for failing to wear a face covering where required. There have been 304 of those tickets issued since the mask bylaw came into effect on Aug. 1, 2020.

‘Speaks to the strength of our team’: How Calgary’s health-care workers managed one year of the pandemic

The beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 was wrought with uncertainty, as local health-care workers braced for the worst following the news from hard-hit jurisdictions such as Italy and New York City. Despite unpredictability being a constant for doctors and hospital staff in the workplace, the start of the pandemic brought an additional layer of unknowns.

“Are we going to be bringing home this pathogen to our family? And to our friends that we saw prior to restrictions being put in place?” said emergency physician Dr. Heather Patterson. “That uncertainty was something that was very different than the day-to-day aspects of my job.”

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Rural baker takes a bite out of pandemic with ghastly Mr. Covid cake

Its smiling visage looks ready to take a bite out of you, but an amazing work of art created by a Medicine Hat cake artist is in fact a fully edible marble cake.

Bernice Fentiman, a cake artist at Redcliff Bakery, made the Mr. Covid cake last week for a customer.

She said she’d done smaller COVID-19 virus cakes, but this was the first large one she’d made, and the larger canvas inspired her to do more.

“Me and the other gal working here, we thought, ‘We should put a face on that thing,’” said Fentiman.

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Atlantic Bubble to lift restrictions on travel between provinces on April 19

The four Atlantic Canada premiers have issued a statement announcing April 19 as the date residents will be able to travel between the four Atlantic provinces without restrictions.

They caution that the reopening is conditional on COVID-19 case numbers remaining low in the region, outbreaks being contained, and on the advice of Atlantic Chief Medical Officers of Health medical officers.

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U.S. to send 1.5 million ‘releasable doses’ of AstraZeneca vaccine to Canada

The United States plans to send roughly four million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine that it is not using to Mexico and Canada in loan deals with the two countries, an administration official told Reuters on Thursday.

Mexico will receive 2.5 million doses of the vaccine and Canada is to receive 1.5 million doses, the official said.

“We’re lending a portion of our releasable doses of AstraZeneca vaccine,” the official said on condition of anonymity. “We only put the virus behind us if we’re helping our global partners.”

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Alberta doubling pharmacies offering COVID-19 vaccine

Alberta plans to deliver COVID-19 vaccine doses to more than 500 community pharmacies by early April, doubling the number of locations across the province where residents can be immunized, Premier Jason Kenney announced Thursday.

Speaking outside a Shopper Drug Mart location in Edmonton, Kenney said 259 pharmacies in 107 communities are now offering the vaccine, marking a 154 per cent increase in participating pharmacies since the beginning of March.

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More than 35,000 doses of vaccine have been administered at pharmacies province-wide. That’s of the 418,663 doses of COVID-19 vaccine that have been administered overall in Alberta as of Wednesday.

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More to come…

Watch it here:

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COVID-19 developments across Canada on Thursday

Manitoba may allow concert halls and theatres to reopen and ease self-isolation rules for some travellers. Among the options being considered by the government is allowing big indoor venues, such as concert halls, theatres and casinos, to reopen with capacity limits. The province may no longer require domestic travellers to self-isolate for 14 days if they do not have symptoms and are travelling for business.

Saskatchewan has announced people will get paid time off from work to get a COVID-19 vaccination. The province says it has amended its occupational health and safety regulations to allow an employee to take three consecutive hours off to get inoculated.

The Atlantic travel bubble is reopening by April 19 if COVID-19 infections in the region remain low. The bubble allows residents of the region to travel between the four provinces without having to isolate for 14 days.

Quebec is reporting 702 new COVID-19 infections and seven more deaths. Hospitalizations dropped by 13 to 519, and 101 people were in intensive care, a decline of six.

Ontario says there are 1,553 new cases of COVID-19 in the province today along with 15 more deaths.

Nova Scotia is reporting its first COVID-19-related death since last August — a woman over the age of 80 in the Halifax region. The province has reported 66 deaths linked to the virus since the onset of the pandemic.

The military commander handling logistics for Canada’s vaccine distribution program says there will be enough vaccine delivered to give a first dose before Canada Day to every adult who wants one. Maj. Gen. Dany Fortin says that’s if provinces follow the advice to delay second doses up to four months and there are no production delays.

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‘I asked the creator to bless it’: Indigenous elders, doctors tackle COVID-19 questions

Doreen Alexis wasn’t planning to get the COVID-19 vaccine; she saw too many concerns on social media. But then she looked at her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, she told a panel discussion on vaccines and vaccine safety Wednesday.

“(The young people) are telling us they need to take care of us,” the Indigenous elder said with a laugh. “But the reason why I took it, is to take care of myself so I can help the younger generation.”

“To survive; to help them on this,” she said. “Because it’s still not over yet.”

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Restaurant gets warning from AHS for breaking COVID-19 regulations

A Calgary restaurant was written up for numerous COVID-19 violations last Saturday.

An inspection by Alberta Health Services at Scarpetta Italian Eatery at 1003 9th Ave. S.E. found multiple dining parties seated less than two metres apart, and a lack of barriers between the groups.

Two staff members were wearing plastic mouth shields that were deemed inadequate to contain droplets, according to the report, and several dining tables had cutlery already set out, which is a violation of the current regulations.

The inspector also found a bottle being used as a disinfectant had no cleaning solution in it.

The owner has been ordered to fix the reported deficiencies and submit a relaunch plan with details of the risk mitigation measures the restaurant will use in the future.

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Wednesday

Albertans born in 1952, 1953, 1954 to get vaccine as variant case count grows

Eligibility for COVID-19 immunization will expand further in Alberta Thursday, when three more birth years will be able to register to get the jab.

The news comes as variant case counts continue in grow in the province.

Starting at 8 a.m., those born in 1952, 1953 and 1954, as well as First Nations, Métis and Inuit people born in 1967, 1968 and 1969, will be newly eligible to receive the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. Those born prior to these years are also able to book appointments.

Read more.

Wednesday

479 new cases, four deaths

Alberta’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw provided an update on the province’s COVID-19 numbers Wednesday afternoon.

• More 397,500 doses of vaccine administered
• Vaccine eligibility expands by three birth years tomorrow at 8 a.m.: all Albertans born 1952-1954 are now eligible, as are First Nations, Inuit or Métis people born 1967-1969
• 479 new cases of COVID-19 on 10,827 tests; 4.7% positivity rate
• 262 in hospital; 44 in ICUs
• Four additional deaths; 1,956 total
• 4,918 active cases; 132,748 recovered
• 50 new variant cases; 11% of active cases variants
• Active alerts or outbreaks in 283 schools; 1,199 cases in these schools

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Watch the full livestream below.

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Wednesday

Inside the first year: How Canadian leaders responded to ‘unprecedented’ COVID-19 pandemic

After a year of living with COVID-19, Postmedia is taking an in-depth look at the significant social, institutional and economic issues the pandemic has brought to light in Canada — and more importantly, how we can finally begin to solve them. You can find our complete coverage here.

COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions have been in place for more than a year in Canada. While the pandemic brought normal life to a halt, it sent the news cycle into overdrive. To keep up with the avalanche of pandemic updates, Canadians tuned into government press conferences, live streams and video updates more than ever before. This a month-by-month video compilation of the major news moments and shocking updates that defined the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada.

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Wednesday

AHS orders restaurant to close after serving past 11 p.m.

A Mediterranean restaurant in southwest Calgary has been ordered to temporarily close after being cited for breaking COVID-19 restrictions.

The order was issued on Tuesday after an Alberta Health Services inspector determined that Trio Cafe, 1504 16th Ave. S.W., was operating past 11 p.m. on March 13, “with approximately 15 patrons onsite”.

COVID-19 restrictions enacted Feb. 8 state that restaurants, bars and cafes must stop liquor service by 10 p.m. and close by 11 p.m. A maximum of six people are allowed at a table, as long as they are from the same household.

AHS will allow the restaurant to re-open after the owner provides details “of all risk mitigation measures” to prevent the transmission of COVID-19, as well as fixing a minor issue with the dishwasher.

Wednesday

Alberta pastor who defied health orders to be released from jail soon

An Edmonton-area pastor accused of violating COVID-19 health restrictions will likely be released from jail this week after prosecutors agreed to withdraw one of three charges against him, his lawyers say.

On Wednesday, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms issued a news release claiming victory in the case of GraceLife Church Pastor James Coates, who has been jailed since mid-February after being charged with breaches of the Public Health Act.

GraceLife was accused of repeatedly holding services without capacity restrictions, social distancing or face coverings in violation of COVID-19 health restrictions.

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