State of local emergency comes to an end in Banff
The Town of Banff has ended a state of local emergency declared Nov. 25 as COVID -19 active case numbers have declined to just 10.
Cases started to climb in the town in November and peaked at around 190 active cases at the end of the month.
There have been 396 total cases of COVID -19 in Banff.
“I believe that the residents in our community received a wakeup call when we saw the cases rising so quickly,” Banff Mayor Karen Sorenson said.
“I think the communication showing the community what was happening on a day-to-day basis caused everybody to say, `OK, we absolutely need to do the right thing, we're going to be committed to stopping the spread,' and that seemed to be what worked, was when people did the right thing.”
Town council enacted new measures in November — just before the province announced new restrictions — to help slow the spread of the virus, such as limiting liquor sales in restaurants to 10 p.m. and closing liquor and cannabis stores early.
Visits to the town of Banff remain steady, at around 70 per cent of numbers from this time last year, with weekends seeing the most vehicle traffic in and out.
“There's definitely visitation here in the town and, again, I do think it's part of the need for all kinds of reasons, not the least of which is mental health,” Sorenson said.
“People are leaving their homes, and driving somewhere just to be in a different environment and a wide-open space like a national park seems like a great idea.”
In ending the local emergency Jan. 15, Sorenson said the situation has “improved greatly” but there's still cause for caution.
“We need people to continue to do the right thing,” she said. “We are not out of this pandemic and what happened to us in November could easily happen to us again.”
Sorenson said the town is once again looking at a “different summer” from past years, with a priority on helping the local economy and keeping residents and visitors safe.
“For myself, and I can probably say on behalf of all of council, administration and the community, (we feel) the word relief in capital letters,” she said.
“We're very appreciative and very hopeful that we do not have to go through something like that again, but I say that with caution because it's an absolute possibility.”