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Lone Butte Historical Association’s first meet of the year cancelled

Al Jones’ regular correspondence for the Lone Butte area
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The Lone Butte Historical Association (LBHA) cancelled its first meeting of the year in March due to COVID-19 as many other societies have done.

During the 2017 fire emergency situation, the LBHA was able to keep Water Tower Park / Rest Station open 24 hours a day, seven days a week to help the evacuees, firefighters, police and other emergency personnel.

In this coronavirus situation, it is uncertain if the rest station will even be open this summer season, at least until the situation changes.

Most historical / heritage sites are already closed and buildings are locked. As we know, at the beginning of spring this year, airlines, schools, churches, restaurants, theatres, sporting events, concerts have all been closed, postponed or cancelled.

For the first time in history, the Canadian / United States borders have been closed to everything but essential goods and services to help slow the spread of the virus.

Restrictions are expanding by the day and people are being asked to stay home.

This week, (first day of spring) Prime Minister Trudeau stated that 500,000 Canadians had applied for employment insurance and Canada’s chief medical office Dr. Theresa Tam stated that 66,000 Canadians have been tested for COVID-19 with 924 cases testing positive and 12 deaths. Currently, the worldwide pandemic has 328,000 known cases of the coronavirus with 14,000 deaths.

Many European countries are already in total lockdown. Doctor Sanjay Gupta, CNN chief medical correspondent, has stated “eighty percent of the people caught the virus from someone who didn’t know they had it.”

Just over a hundred years ago, when the Spanish Flu world pandemic broke out in the spring of 1918, ten million people passed away. The pandemic settled down in the summer but came back with a vengeance in the fall and an additional forty million people died. The message health care professionals are continually giving is to self isolate or quarantine at home, wash your hands regularly, wear plastic gloves grocery shopping, wear a mask if you’re sick, practise social distancing of 2 metres or six feet, avoid panic buying and hoarding like we have all seen with toilet paper, stay away from elderly people and family members who have compromised immune systems, or heart and respiratory issues. Stay well and remember, we are all in this together.