Lethbridge officials reflect on city’s response to COVID-19 so far

The City of Lethbridge ended the longest local state of emergency in its history on Thursday.

The decision comes three months to the day that the declaration took effect as part of the city’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It has not been business as usual for the city over the past 13 weeks, and even now, officials continue to navigate a new normal.

“We tried to think of everything to keep everyone in the city safe,” Mayor Chris Spearman said in a recent interview with Global News.

“What was alarming was seeing what was happening in Europe, and seeing the numbers steadily increasing and then seeing the numbers in Canada and in Alberta steadily increasing.

“Calgary wasn’t doing that great and then there were communities like Brooks who didn’t seem to have a problem and then one day they had a huge problem,” he said.

Lethbridge is no stranger to local emergencies like floods or wildfires but in this case, the novel coronavirus presented an entirely new challenge.

“This does not compare to a flood or fire at all,” said Marc Rathwell, the city’s director of emergency management.

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“A virus we don’t see, people do not see the threat that’s out there to us.”

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Rathwell said the early days were also challenging as the city worked to streamline communications with the provincial government, which was in charge of leading the COVID-19 response.

“Managing folks’ expectations at that time was very difficult, let alone just keeping up with the chaos — or felt like chaos — trying to get the right answers.”

Within two weeks, Rathwell said the city had its incident command team mobilized and information began to flow better.

In its local response to the pandemic, among other things, recreational facilities were closed, playgrounds were placed off-limits, a second temporary homeless shelter was set up and public transit would shift to an on-demand service model.

WATCH: (March, 27, 2020) The City of Lethbridge announced more space for its homeless population Friday to improve social distancing and access to self-isolation space. Tom Roulston reports.

1:36 Lethbridge increases shelter space for homeless population to prevent spread of COVID-19

In the weeks that followed, people in Lethbridge and the surrounding region would test positive for COVID-19, but not in some of the larger numbers seen in other centres.

“I’m not going to say this was lucky,” said Rathwell.

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“I’m going to believe this is our citizens reacting appropriately, following the guidelines that the minister of health has put forward.”

Spearman is also quick to commend those who stepped up to help those who were left vulnerable.

“We saw large volunteer networks spring up where people looked after people in their neighbourhood, people delivered food,” Spearman said.

Now mid-June, and in Phase 2 of the provincial relaunch, public health measures of the pandemic’s peak have been eased.

Businesses like salons and gyms can operate again, under public health guidelines.

The city is optimistic it can recover economically, but the mayor knows COVID-19 will be lurking for some time.

“This was something that many of us are going to remember for a long time and we’re not sure that it’s over,” Spearman said.