Like many of you, I am watching the progression of the COVID-19 virus. The virus is serious because it can be fatal to compromised individuals (e.g. Older adults and people with medical conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and lung disease appear to be at higher risk of becoming very sick). It is to be taken seriously. Others end up with flu like symptoms if they get the virus and just have to ride it out as there is no treatment. The problem is that we don’t know how it will affect each of us individually.
To make informed decisions for yourself, your family, and your role at the MD, it is important for you to understand what the coronavirus (COVID-19) is, what its symptoms are, how to protect yourself, and what you should do if you think you have COVID-19. For your information, I have attached updated “frequently asked questions” from Alberta Health Services (AHS). As information changes with the spread of COVID-19, you should monitor AHS for updates. The information from AHS is most relevant to you in Alberta and our region.
If you are worried about whether you might have the virus or are at risk, an excellent self-assessment tool has been developed at MyHealth.alberta.ca. Use this self-assessment tool to help determine whether you should get tested for COVID-19. You can complete this assessment for yourself or on behalf of someone else, if they are not able. myhealth.alberta.ca
Some of you are concerned about self-isolating. The answer is that it is an individual one that has to be practiced with responsibility. If you have come back from a vacation in a foreign locale, AHS recommends that you self quarantine.
If you believe that you are inflected, the answer is that you stay away from work and other people. In the attachment to this email, consult: “What should I do if I think I have COVID-19?”
As MD employees, you are more fortunate than many employees in Slave Lake or Westlock or Athabasca, or Canada (or the world) as you are eligible for sick leave. Others do not have this option. That is why the Canadian Government is looking at freeing up Employment Insurance provisions to help those without sick leave. This is one of those times that MD leave is to be taken if you have symptoms or factors that warrant quarantine. If you have used up or run out of time, you may find yourself using up TOIL or vacation time. We will be looking at our STD benefits for application and what the federal government offers. Regardless, this virus is going to be with us for sometime, perhaps months, so your individual decisions about taking days off are serious as the MD still has to operate and conversely we don’t want you infecting people at work.
For some of you, there may be the option of working at home. That will be considered.
In the meantime, this is a time when our true colours of being Canadian will shine through. As citizens, we will take varying degrees of a financial hit and will experience inconvenience with COVID-19, but consideration for others (or yourself if you are infected or at risk of infecting others) is important so that the spread is slowed so healthcare facilities are not overwhelmed all at once as they are in Italy right now. In the end, most of us will likely catch the virus but the timing, if spread out over time, will ensure that those infected folks that really need help, if they have severe symptoms, can be helped by healthcare providers.
As we learn of new information that affects the MD and our staffing, I will update you. Meanwhile:
Keep calm and carry on (and sanitize and keep a social distance between yourself and others…).
And, keep smiling.
Allan Winarski, CPA, CGA
Chief Administrative Officer
Municipal District of Lesser Slave River No.124
