Deaths in Brooks confirmed to be COVID-19 related

Sadly the first two COVIDrelated deaths in the south zone have taken place this week.

Alberta Health announced on Thursday that there had been two deaths in Brooks.

“Both deaths have now been confirmed as COVID-19. One of them was a worker at JBS (meat processing plant in Brooks), the other was not (from JBS) but is linked to the outbreak,” said Tom McMillan, spokesperson for Dr. Deena Hinshaw, chief medical officer of health.

Katherine Chubbs, chief zone officer for Alberta Health Services’ south zone, provided a statement.

“Our deepest sympathies are with the families of those who have lost loved ones.”

Chubbs says testing is occurring daily in the city of Brooks and AHS is working with that city to further bolster testing in the community in the coming days.

The News reached out to Brooks Mayor Barry Morishita on Friday for comment but there was no response by deadline.

On Friday afternoon AHS said there were two cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat Regional Hospital and one of those was in ICU. A spokesperson said that is the total number of hospitalized cases in the whole of the south zone so there are no cases in the Brooks hospital and none in Lethbridge.

The number of COVID-19 positive cases in Brooks climbed suddenly and steadily.

Last Sunday there were 109 cases. On Tuesday that number had increased to 115 and by the following day to 157. On Wednesday it was 257 and by Thursday 311.

Hinshaw mentioned on Wednesday that 96 of the cases were workers at the JBS plant and on Thursday that number had increased to 194.

Medicine Hat Mayor Ted Clugston has said between 200 and 400 Hatters commute daily to Brooks for work. He said there were no immediate plans to curtail this commute but did not rule this out as possible future action.