RED DEER, Alta. Alberta Health Services says it is responding directly to a COVID-19 outbreak that has infected hundreds at a hog slaughterhouse where almost two-thirds of workers have at least one other job outside the plant.
Spokeswoman Heather Kipling said Tuesday nurses and contact tracers with experience in communicable disease control are helping manage the outbreak at Olymel s pork plant in Red Deer, Alta. The health agency is also arranging for ongoing testing to monitor for asymptomatic spread.
Alberta Health has been notified of 343 cases linked to this outbreak. Of these, 200 are active, 142 recovered. One worker has died.
Olymel said late Monday it was shutting down the hog slaughtering, cutting and deboning plant indefinitely because it believed it could no longer be operated safely and efficiently.
Here are the latest local, regional and national headlines on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) for Wednesday, February 17, 2021:
There have been 287,736 confirmed cases of COVID-19 across Ontario, an increase of 904 (or 0.3 per cent) from the previous day. There are 269,413 people recovered from the virus while 6,719 people have died. The number of Ontario people tested is 10,433,272 of which 15,024 have pending results.
Canada’s coronavirus case total is 831,577. The country has 21,397 deaths from the virus – one in the Yukon, one in Nunavut, 1,314 in British Columbia, 1,791 in Alberta, 357 in Saskatchewan, 875 in Manitoba, 6,719 in Ontario, 10,246 in Quebec, 24 in New Brunswick, four in Newfoundland & Labrador and 65 in Nova Scotia.
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GraceLife Church pastor remains in custody after holding another service violating COVID-19 public health orders GraceLife Church in Parkland County defied Alberta government public gathering restrictions on the weekend and held a church service. Photo by Larry Wong /Postmedia
The pastor of a Parkland County church previously charged with violating Public Health Act orders remains in custody after turning himself in to police Tuesday, RCMP say.
On Sunday, RCMP and Alberta Health Services attended the GraceLife Church to “assess compliance in relation to conditions issued to the pastor on Feb. 7,” police said in a news release.
Pastor James Coates had previously been charged under the Public Health Act for being over capacity and failing to adhere to physical distancing requirements during church service. He was served an undertaking with conditions.
RED DEER, Alta. Alberta Health Services says it is responding directly to a COVID-19 outbreak that has infected hundreds at a hog slaughterhouse where almost…
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Labour leaders are taking aim at public health officials for failing to mandate a shutdown of the Olymel pork processing plant at Red Deer once it became apparent that COVID-19 was spreading rapidly among the facility’s workforce.
On Tuesday, the Alberta Federation of Labour released a copy of a letter it obtained dated Feb. 11 and addressed to Olymel management from Dr. Mohammed Mosli, medical officer of health for Alberta Health Services’ Central zone.
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