City of Calgary's state of emergency extended 90 more days

The City of Calgary is extending its local state of emergency for another 90 days, the head of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency announced on Tuesday.

As Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi and Calgary Emergency Management Agency chief Sue Henry gave an update about the city's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, he said encouraging progress has been made but we're not yet out of the woods.

"Far too many of our neighbours and friends are still at a great risk," Nenshi said.

The provincially declared state of public emergency also remains in effect.

Henry said extending Calgary's state of emergency — which was enacted on Nov. 25 last year — will allow the city to be best positioned to help with the provincial government in the coming weeks.

"We want to ensure we are ready to support and partner with Alberta Health and Alberta Health Services with the vaccination planning and rollout," she said.

"These powers allow the city to remain agile and responsive to emerging needs. They ensure prompt co-ordination of actions, all to protect the safety, health and welfare of Calgarians."

Albertans 75 and older who haven't yet been vaccinated for COVID-19 got the great news last week that they're now eligible starting Wednesday.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced last Friday that the province was moving to Phase 1B of the vaccine rollout, expanding vaccinations to everyone 75 and older.

The next steps come as all long-term care and designated supported living residents in Alberta public facilities have now received their second and final doses of vaccine, the premier said.

As of Monday's provincial update, the Calgary zone had 1,665 active COVID-19 cases, down from 1,669 reported on Sunday (and 48,166 people had recovered).

Alberta won't decide whether to ease more restrictions until at least March 1

On Monday, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, said that with new case numbers rising slightly in recent days, Alberta won't make any decision about easing or tightening restrictions until March 1 at the earliest as public health officials watch to see how the numbers are trending over the next several days.

The province reported 273 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday and another 16 deaths from the illness.

Though the deaths were reported to Alberta Health over the last 24 hours, 10 of them happened in December, one in January, and four in February.

As of Monday, there were 4,675 active cases in the province, with 324 patients being treated for the illness in hospitals, including 53 in ICU beds.

The city also announced Tuesday that it will reopen the following additional recreational facilities on Feb. 25 for one-on-one training and minor sport group training:

• Stew Hendry/Henry Viney Arena.
• Optimist/George Blundun Arenas.
• Calgary Soccer Centre.