Brooks Mayor Barry Morishita is expressing great concern at the spread of COVID-19 in his city. He says the growth in cases will worsen until members of the community follow health orders.--SUBMITTED PHOTO
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The mayor of Brooks calls the surge in COVID-19 cases in the last week concerning and is actively looking at additional measures.
A week ago there were a handful of cases and by Sunday that number had soared to 102.
“Very worried, very worried. I don’t think anybody can’t be worried about the growth in the number,” said Barry Morishita. “Council is worried. We certainly, as a community, should be worried about it.”
Morishita says 10 to 20 times more testing is now taking place in the community and he expects the 102 number to grow significantly.
He does not believe the numbers are attributable to the JBS meat packing plant located there and feels it is a broader community spread.
“Individuals and groups are responsible for this outside of the activity of the plant,” said Morishita, noting there are cases positive at two fast food restaurants and a grocery store in Brooks.
“We were told by AHS (Alberta Health Services) they are not linked specifically to JBS employees,” said Morishita.
He says people are not doing what they’re supposed to do and the spread will continue until residents pay attention.
There was no response to requests for comment from JBS.
There was no response from Alberta Health regarding the number of cases at JBS.
Brooks has a high percentage of immigrants and refugees. For some, English is a second language.
Morishita admits the language barrier exists but can be overcome. A larger contributing factor is high-density housing complexes and multi-generational living. Gatherings of people not from the same family unit have also continued.
“We’re getting reports of that and it’s not just related to the immigrant community,” said Morishita. “This all has to stop if we want to get out of this.”
He says it is frustrating to see people not following the rules with the potential of infecting others and perhaps even costing lives.
“We’re going to take a lot more aggressive stance in terms of enforcement,” said Morishita.
Brooks is under a local state of emergency and the mayor says he’s not afraid to take action against individuals, issue fines and close businesses if necessary.
Brooks is working on a program to handle COVID-19 positive cases if positive cases are living in a larger group where self-isolation would be difficult.
The City of Brooks is “no where near” the point of thinking of asking for military assistance to enforce social distancing and self-isolation, he said.
In terms of health care facilities, he believes Brooks is able to cope at present. There are no cases in the seniors’ facility.
The Cargill facility in High River has been linked to a spike in COVID-19 cases in High River.
One media report on Monday pegged the number at 358 cases in the community that includes workers at the Cargill and households.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, recently noted that Agriculture and Forestry, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and AHS have developed a plan to protect workers while ensuring limited impact to the essential food supply during the pandemic.
