.jpg;w=960)
An Okotoks man has heard the statistics of COVID-19 cases going up in his age group and about the spike in cases in Alberta over the past few weeks.
That’s why Colton Hogge, 27, carries a mask with him and he’s hoping Okotoks town council will pass a bylaw on July 27 to make wearing masks at indoor public facilities mandatory.
“I think it is a good idea, it helps stop the spread,” said Hogge. “It only works with everyone wearing one. If half of us are wearing one and half of us aren’t then it is only going to be half as effective… So make everybody do it.”
The Town of Okotoks draft bylaw includes retail businesses, gymnasiums, churches and other public indoor facilities. However, masks do not have to be worn when actively eating in a restaurant or by persons doing a fitness activity, such as in a gym.
The City of Calgary passed a similar bylaw on July 21. There has been a spike in cases in the Calgary zone, with 463 new cases reported from July 17-23, according to Alberta government statistics.
There are 703 active cases in the Calgary zone as of July 23.
From July 20-23 there were four consecutive days of 100-plus new cases reported in Alberta. Alberta now has had more than 10,000 cases.
In the Okotoks-Priddis region, there have been 180 cases confirmed in 2020. Of those, there are four active cases, 175 people have recovered and there has been one death.
Bob Brown, owner/pharmacist of Okotoks Shoppers Drug Mart, is in favour of the proposed Okotoks bylaw.
“As a health-care professional I think it is very obvious that expanded, if not universal, mask wearing, is a given that it will help,” Brown said.
He said a bylaw would only help the community. He said while wearing a mask does little to prevent an individual from getting COVID-19, it is a huge deterrent to spreading the disease.
“Particularly, when the symptoms can be so subtle, maybe even asymptomatic, how is it possible to contain the spread if you don’t know you have it?" he said.
“It’s about protecting the group. People need to understand it is not just about themselves when wearing a mask.”
A bylaw would also take the pressure off individual businesses. At present, while COVID-19 protocols of hygiene and physical distancing are in place at Shoppers, the wearing of masks is not mandatory.
“It is very difficult for me as a business owner to insist that my staff police the rules of our COVID environment,” Brown said. “We have 17 and 18 year-old kids working at the store. Are they supposed to police these kind of things?
“If there was legislation to support wearing a mask, then we are not the policemen… We’re customer-service oriented, we don’t want to create friction and conflict.”
Wendy Waddell would rather educate than legislate in regards to the masks.
"I find a lot of people when they are wearing a mask they are in your face -- they feel you don't have to social distance anymore," she said. "You see people wearing masks under their nose and you see people touching and touching their masks and that contaminates it and it's no good anyway.
"Why have it on if it's not doing anything for you?"
She does feel masks should be worn for such things as public transit.
Marlene and Mark Staples didn’t need a bylaw to have a mask on at the Elks Farmers Market July 25 indoors at the Elks Hall in Okotoks.
She said she wishes mask-wearing by the public could have been voluntary.
“I’d rather see that people did it voluntarily than have it mandated, but for the time being, because the caseload is going up, it’s probably a good idea,” Marlene said.
Both the Staples are over 60 years of age.
Don Fernley admitted he doesn’t wear a mask, but has no issues with a town bylaw to do so.
“I don’t have a problem with it, I don’t wear a mask right now, but if I have to I will,” he said. “Most of the time it is because I am not used to it. Once the bylaw comes in, I will have a mask with me and I will use it.”
He said he works outside and as a result doesn’t have a mask with him.
Meanwhile, his wife Colleen does wear a mask at indoor public facilities.
“I think given that the numbers have been increasing since opening things up, people are just acting like there isn’t an issue and I think there still is,” Colleen said. “Because we are not taking steps to do the right thing on our own.
“People aren’t using their common sense so they have to create a bylaw.”
And people can change their ways, the 63-year-old Don said.
He recalls when wearing a seatbelt became mandatory in June of 1986.
"It took me a while to get into the habit of wearing a seatbelt and now it is an everyday thing. If the (mask) bylaw comes down, I might get caught once or twice but eventually I will learn to put one on."
The special meeting for the bylaw is July 27 at 7 p.m. For a link to the meeting go to https://video.isilive.ca/okotoks/live.html
COVID-19 UPDATE: Follow our COVID-19 special section for the latest local and national news on the coronavirus pandemic, as well as resources, FAQs and more.
