Choose to wear a mask in public or city may make it law, Nenshi tells Calgarians
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi warned the city could make masks mandatory in all public indoor spaces within two weeks if more Calgarians don’t take it upon themselves to wear face coverings.
Nenshi said Tuesday that wearing a mask is among three critical actions that people should still be taking to limit the spread of the COVID -19 virus, along with keeping distance from others in public and maintaining proper hygiene.
But the use of face coverings remains far too uncommon within Calgary, he said, which could prompt the city to follow the lead of Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa in making them mandatory.
“Our level of mask-wearing in Calgary in stores and public transit, in particular, is way too low,” Nenshi said.
“I’ve been pushing, saying, ‘you gotta do it, you gotta do it.’ People aren’t doing it. So if Calgarians are not willing to do it on their own in order to make sure we get to Stage 3 (of Alberta’s reopening strategy), we prevent a second wave, we open the economy more, then certainly we’ll look at all our options.”
Toronto’s mandatory face-covering bylaw came into effect Tuesday, requiring anyone in indoor public areas — such as stores, malls, places of worship and entertainment venues — to wear a mask. It doesn’t apply to schools or post-secondary institutions, condos and apartment buildings, or hospitals.
Masks have also been made mandatory on Toronto’s public transit system.
As of Tuesday, masks are also mandatory in all indoor public spaces in Ottawa. Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante said her city intends to pass a bylaw making face coverings mandatory in enclosed public places by July 27.
Nenshi said “it is not at all lost” on him that those cities have taken action.
“If that’s something we need to examine, then that’s something I’m very happy to bring forward to council,” he said.
The mayor added that Calgary city council is scheduled to hold its next meeting in less than two weeks.
“We’ll have to see how Calgarians do in the next 13 days,” he said.
“You only want to put in a bylaw if it’s needed.”
There were 230 active COVID -19 cases across Alberta Health Services’ Calgary zone on Tuesday, including 19 hospital patients. There have been 112 deaths due to COVID-19 in the region since the start of the pandemic.
Last month, a group of Calgary doctors called on the provincial and federal governments to make the use of face masks mandatory.
But Premier Jason Kenney has stopped short of endorsing that call. He said in a June 19 news conference that he remains an “advocate” of wearing face coverings to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, but he is not in favour of making them mandatory across the province.
“I agree with what (chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw) has said from the beginning of the pandemic, that we’re not going to enforce our way out of this,” Kenney said. “We’ve thought long and hard about it and I really don’t want to end up in a situation where we have police or bylaw officers ticketing people or arresting people for not wearing a face covering. I think the implications of that are just deeply problematic.” Kenney said “the science is now clear” that wearing a mask limits transmission of the virus. “I do note that in countries with the greatest success in combating the pandemic — like Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong — that there is almost universal usage of masks in public areas, particularly in crowded contexts like mass transit,” he said.
There are 620 active cases of COVID-19 provincewide, according to Tuesday’s online update, and 54 people are in hospital, including six patients requiring intensive care. Of the 6,015 tests completed in the past 24 hours, AHS identified 47 new cases.
Two men in their 70s who were connected to an outbreak at Misericordia Community Hospital in Edmonton have died from COVID-19 this week, Alberta Health said. Their deaths bring the total of fatalities from COVID-19 in Alberta to 157.
Alberta Health said Tuesday there are still 23 active cases associated with an outbreak at the
Verve condominium in Calgary’s East Village.
AHS will be offering on-site testing at the highrise on Wednesday for residents and guests so they can get a better picture of how the outbreak is progressing and if it’s been contained.