jappel@medicinehatnews.com@MHNJeremyAppel
While Medicine Hat College remains open for classes, administration has announced a series of extra precautions it’s taking to guard against the spread of COVID-19.
Classes at the University of Alberta, University of Calgary and University of Lethbridge were cancelled Friday, but MHC director of community relations Mark Kellar says this was a result of their large class sizes, with some exceeding 250 people.
“They need time to rejig their operations and figure out how they’re going to handle things,” Keller told the News. “On the flip side of that, we’ve been actually asked to sustain operations and are certainly doing so.”
In a Thursday press conference, Alberta chief officer of medical health Dr. Deena Hinshaw announced that all public gatherings of more than 250 people must be cancelled.
“We’re making a few changes just to trim activities and to reduce some of the areas where a virus might be more easily spread, but that is the limit of what we’re doing at the moment,” said Keller.
As of Friday, the MHC campus will be closed from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. except for security and cleaning staff.
The Fitness Centre at Medicine Hat and Brooks campuses will be closed for public use indefinitely. However, classes that use these facilities will continue as scheduled.
Group fitness classes at both campuses are cancelled indefinitely.
Event cancellations are ongoing. So far, the Healing and Reconciliation Conference (March 23-27) and regional science fair (March 21) are indefinitely postponed.
Further cancellations can be found on the MHC website, as well as in the News.
