COVID-19 hot spot Banff beats down infection rate with more testing, isolation rooms

The number of active COVID-19 cases has dropped dramatically in Banff after havinghad the highest per capita rate in the province.

At the end of last month, the mountain town had a rate of more than 1,070 active cases for every 100,000 people.

As of May 12, however, the town has only the 60th highest rate in the province, says the town's director of emergency management.

Silvio Adamo says hard work, ample testing and creating isolation rooms led to the significant drop in cases.

"Our tactic was to identify people in our community as quickly as possible with COVIDand get them in isolation so that they didn't spread the virus. And I think we were pretty successful with that," he said.

Because many of Banff's hospitality and service industryworkers live communally, achieving isolation can be a challenge.

Adamo says the town was able to create 143 isolation rooms, which helped flatten the curve in Banff.

He says only 11 people now remain in quarantine.