Edmonton police and fire crews have joined in a global movement aimed at supporting front-line health-care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Tuesday morning, dozens of Edmonton Police Service and Edmonton Fire Rescue Service vehicles drove by the Grey Nuns Community Hospital in south Edmonton to show their support for local health-care workers.
In a video captured by registered nurse Rob Kroetsch, the emergency vehicles can be seen driving by with lights on and sirens running.
Kroetsch works in the emergency department and said the salute was incredibly touching for everyone at the hospital.
“This absolutely blew our minds. Most of us had lumps in our throats with such solidarity,” he said.
“This is an uncertain time for all of us, and this type of support means the world to all of us.”
It was a similar scene at another Edmonton hospital on Tuesday night. A convoy of police, firefighters and paramedics in ambulances saluted employees at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in the middle of the city.
And it’s not just hospitals getting special salutes either. A parade of police vehicles drove past the Northeast Community Health Centre on Tuesday morning — right around shift change.
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Registered nurse Christine Tanzi caught the vehicles on video.
“[There were] about 15-20 of them, they all had their lights on. They were waving,” Tanzi said.
“They didn’t have their sirens on — which I was kind of sad about – but I was reminded it was 7 a.m. in a residential area,” she laughed.
Tanzi said she took the video because she wanted to share it with her co-workers that weren’t on shift at the time.
“That was an amazing way to end our shift. Just to feel that support and appreciation from another essential service and front-line team,” she explained.
“It just reminded me and everyone else that we’re just all in this together. We’re fighting this together.”
Tanzi said it was nice to see smaller medical centres be included in the parades.
“That’s been really heartwarming as well — to see everyone coming together as a community,” she said.
“No matter if you’re a front-line worker, no matter if you’re an essential worker. Everyone is doing their part right now — everyone social distancing, staying home — that’s the best and the most we can ask from people right now.”
Emergency responders in other Canadian cities have also taken part in similar salutes, including Calgary, Montreal and Kelowna.
In Vancouver, residents in the city’s West End have taken to their balconies nightly to clap, bang pots and join in a raucous cheer in support of health-care workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 fight.
The nightly thank-you practice caught on after similar spectacles in Italy and Spain.
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