COVID-19 outbreak at Calgary Alpha House reaches 8 cases
Officials at downtown shelter doing extensive contact tracing
Alberta Health says there are now eight cases of COVID-19 connected to the Alpha House shelter in Calgary.
None of the cases are considered recovered at this point.
All of the clients who tested positive are now either at an isolation hotel or in hospital, the Alpha House Society said.
"Programs continue at Alpha House with reduced capacities and additional AHS measures to keep clients and staff safe," the society's website says.
The society told CBC News it's been preparing for such an occurrence for a long time and has been doing extensive contact tracing to help health authorities prevent further spreading.
"We are working with the other shelters and speaking daily with our public health care team to continue our pandemic response and to implement any new Alberta Health Services (AHS) measures, on top of the guidelines we are already following, to prevent a spread of the virus," Alpha House said in a release.
The province said it has identified another outbreak in Calgary, as well.
According to Alberta Health, 13 cases have been identified at Calgary Flyer Force, a Postmedia flyer distribution company. Seven of those people have recovered.