Alberta’s two largest cities south of Calgary are painting two very different pictures when it comes to COVID-19 cases in southern Alberta.
As of Feb. 11, Lethbridge had recorded 1,857 cases of the novel coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, but if you travel two hours east on Highway 3 to Medicine Hat, you’ll encounter a city that’s tallied just 537 cases to date.
“I think we’re all trying to have the same game, the ultimate game is to get lower and lower,” said Lethbridge city councillor Ryan Parker on Thursday.
“Is it concerning that our numbers are a little higher, for sure.”
Lethbridge and Medicine Hat are the two largest centres within Alberta’s south health zone.
As of Feb. 11, about 30 per cent of the zone’s 6,093 cases have turned up in Lethbridge, while Medicine Hat accounts for only nine per cent.
Of the zone’s active cases, 58 per cent have been identified in Lethbridge, compared to just five per cent in Medicine Hat.
In Lethbridge, where the population is 101,482, one in 54 people have now contracted COVID-19. In Medicine Hat, population 63,260, just one in 118 people have tested positive for the virus.
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“We’ve really relied on our residents to take some ownership within this and ultimately comply with what Alberta Health’s orders and recommendations are,” said Merrick Brown, Medicine Hat’s director of emergency management.
One expert, however, says the striking contrast of case counts in each city goes beyond a perceived buy-in by the public.
“It’s likely a combination of a lot of little things,” Dr. Craig Jenne, an infectious disease researcher at the University of Calgary, said.
“We did see for example in the late fall, early winter, a number of small outbreaks in the Lethbridge area at schools and such, and those do tend to lead to clusters and increased numbers associated with small events,” Jenne said.
When asked about the vastly different trends on Thursday, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health could not provide a definitive answer to explain the stark contrast of COVID-19 cases between the two southern Alberta cities but did remind Albertans that no part of the province is protected from COVID-19.
“Ultimately, we know that where there’s an infectious case and opportunity for it to spread it will spread no matter where,” Hinshaw said.
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