Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre has first run-in with COVID-19

COCHRANE— The Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre has had its first run-in with COVID-19.

On Sunday (Sept. 6) Alberta Health Services notified the facility management that an individual who had attended the Centre’s Summer Camp and Junior Lifeguard Assessment programs during the previous few days had tested positive for COVID-19.

“We basically go into our protocol that we’ve been planning here for a number of months now, and we knew the day was going to happen,” said Blair Felesky, CEO of the Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre. “It’s not going to be the one and only time that it happens.”

Felesky said Alberta Health Services notified him of the programs that the individual took part in, and Felesky then delivered to them the detailed contract-tracing records that the facility has been keeping.

Alberta Health Services will follow up with the families of others who may have had contact with the positive individual.

The staff of the Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre will also be tested, Felesky said.

“We have a number of summer camp employees that will now be in a quarantine period, regardless if they test positive or negative,” he said.

Felesky said, with regards to an individual’s participation in the Junior Lifeguard program, the individual had no direct contact with other staff or participants.

He pointed out that Alberta Health Service guidelines indicate that first-hand contact is someone who is confirmed to have COVID-19 is within six-feet of another person without any protective equipment on, like a mask or face shield for more than 15-minutes.

“Because of the staggered approach that we take on the assessments on the deck, there was very limited contact throughout our entire facility, including camps,” he said.

Felesky noted that they have not heard anything else from Alberta Health Services with regards to the positive case, or any further possible infections at the facility.

“If there are any further actions that are required from us, that gets communicated by Alberta Health Services, but nothing has happened up to this point,” he said. “The reality of the conditions, particularly with school starting, we’re prepared that this will occur again. Hopefully, it doesn’t happen too many times, but the reality is that it will.”

If another visitor to the facility does test positive Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre will review its own protocols through an internal audit, looking for possible improvements, Felesky said. He noted both the staff and executives of the facility are satisfied, as is Alberta Health Services.

“Any time that you’re into uncharted waters with something like this, improvements are going to be ongoing and there is going to be changes and shifts with how we implement things,” he said. “We’re trying to go through this in the most thoughtful way. Guaranteed that things will change, and the processes that we’ve implemented, at least at this point, we feel good about, but this is a fluid condition and we’ll make some adjustments along the way.”