Physical Distancing, Provincial Group Restrictions, and Cleaning Practices Must Continue
It is essential that residents and businesses understand that suppression activities, in particular maintaining safe distances, must be maintained.

If not maintained, transmission will rapidly rebound, potentially producing an epidemic comparable in scale to what would have been seen had no interventions been adopted.

The Town, and Province, need your help to continue to restrict your activities in the interest of community health. Distancing, hand washing, and sanitizing is absolutely crucial.

Residents, businesses, and visitors choosing to remain non-compliant on physical distancing or gathering parameters can, and should, anticipate provincial fines being levied directly moving forward.

Hinton Emergency Operations Centre

Phase 2 Begins Friday

What can open with restrictions

• K-12 schools, for requested diploma exams and summer school, following guidance
• Libraries
• More surgeries
• Wellness services such as massage, acupuncture and reflexology
• Personal services (esthetics, cosmetic skin and body treatments, manicures, pedicures, waxing, facial treatment, artificial tanning)
• Indoor recreation, fitness, and sports, including gyms and arenas
• Movie theatres and theatres
• Community halls
• Team sports
• Pools for leisure swimming
• VLTs in restaurants and bars
• Casinos and bingo halls (but not table games)
• Instrumental concerts

The 50 per cent capacity limit for provincial campgrounds is also being lifted. Over the coming days, the online reservation system will be updated and sites will come online in phases. By July 1, all camping sites will be open for reservations. First-come, first-served sites may open sooner. Information on additional sites will be added to alberta.parks.ca when they become available.

Events and gatherings can be larger in stage two

Maximum 50 people:

• Indoor social gatherings – including wedding and funeral receptions, and birthday parties

Maximum 100 people:

• Outdoor events and indoor seated/audience events – including wedding and funeral ceremonies

No cap on the number of people (with public health measures and physical distancing in place):

• Worship gatherings
• Restaurants, cafés, lounges and bars
• Casinos
• Bingo halls

There is more flexibility for ‘cohort’ groups – small groups of people whose members do not always keep two metres apart:

• A household can increase its close interactions with other households to a maximum of 15 people
• Performers can have a cohort of up to 50 people (cast members or performers)
• Sports teams can play in region-only cohorts of up to 50 players (mini leagues)
• People could be part of a sports/performing and household cohort
• Everyone is encouraged to follow public health guidelines and notify others in the cohort(s) if they have symptoms or test positive for COVID-19. If they do test positive or have symptoms, mandatory isolation is required.

Still not approved in stage two

• Social gatherings that exceed above listed maximums
• Regular in-school classes for kindergarten to Grade 12. Classes will resume September 2020
• Vocal concerts (as singing carries a higher risk of transmission)
• Major festivals and concerts, large conferences, trade shows and events (as these are non-seated social events and/or vocal concerts)
• Nightclubs
• Amusement parks
• Hookah lounges (permitted for food and drink only)
• Major sporting events and tournaments
• Non-essential travel outside the province is not recommended. This recommendation will not be lifted until stage three of the relaunch strategy.

The success of stage two will determine when Alberta progresses to stage three. Factors are active cases, health-care system capacity, hospitalization and intensive care unit (ICU) cases, and infection rates.

For more information, visit alberta.ca/RelaunchStrategy.

How to get your free masks

Drive-thru locations
Starting June 8 you can get 4 free non-medical masks per person at any Alberta A&W, McDonald’s Canada and Tim Hortons drive-thru locations. These are available while supplies last with no purchase necessary.

Masks will not be distributed inside restaurants or at locations without drive-thrus.

Other ways to get a mask
If you can’t access a participating drive-thru location, we encourage you to ask a family member, friend or neighbour to pick up your 4 masks. You can also call 211 for help.

Why use a mask
Albertans are encouraged to wear non-medical masks in public when it's difficult to maintain physical distancing of 2 metres at all times.

Wearing a homemade or non-medical mask in public is another tool to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. It hasn’t been proven that masks protect the person wearing it, but it can help protect people from being exposed to your germs.

Masks should complement – not replace – other prevention measures. Continue physical distancing and good hand hygiene, and stay home when sick.

Learn more here. 

Using Outdoor Spaces

Sharing the path
People of all ages and mobility enjoy the outdoor paths. Please be considerate and aware of all path users.

All cyclists should be using their bell when passing others on the paths. When you are approaching someone, ring your bell, slowdown, and pass off path when safe to do so.
If you are using the paths and you hear a bell, please slow down, look around, and move off path if you need to.

Runners please allow enough room to safely pass others.

Hinton Town Council

Town of Hinton Administration

ComServ Issue 2 Available Tomorrow

To aid is residents understanding of all of community services current status, plans, and programming, ComServ, a newsletter from Community Services and Strategic Services at the the Town of Hinton, will be issued every other week on Friday mornings continuing tomorrow (June 12, 2020). During the pandemic, the newsletter will be issued through both it's own channel and this (News and Announcements) channel. The newsletter may also be subscribed to directly via NotifyMe, available here, or viewed online at Hinton.ca/ComServ.

 Waste Management Pilot Conclusion

Before the pandemic began impacting Canadian communities (in fact, just one week before we went into our Emergency Operations Centre), we were beginning a Waste Management Pilot project in East Hardisty. Since then, the project has been continuing, though it hasn’t been front and centre in the face of pandemic needs.
 
As administration prepares to bring a report on conclusions to Council, we’re asking residents of East Hardisty in particular to share their feedback. Visit Hinton.ca/Bins to learn about the project, and click this link to our exit survey (available from June 4 to June 13).

Learn More

The next scheduled COVID-19 related update is Thursday, June 18, 2020. 

Town of Hinton Previous Update (June 04, 2020)
Town of Hinton Previous Update (May 28, 2020)
Town of Hinton Previous Update (May 25, 2020)
Town of Hinton Previous Update (May 14, 2020)
Town of Hinton Previous Update (May 07, 2020)
Town of Hinton Previous Update (May 01, 2020)
Town of Hinton Previous Update (April 30, 2020)
Town of Hinton Previous Update (April 23, 2020)
Town of Hinton Previous Update (April 16, 2020)

Questions

Residents with questions are asked to contact info@hinton.ca. Responses may be delayed due to EOC needs.

Members of local media with questions are asked to use the Public Information Officer contact information by clicking here or call 780-865-6001 and leave a message. Messages regarding PIO response will be returned within one business day.