27 COVID cases traced to March event at Calgary bar

Alberta Health Services says 27 cases of COVID-19 have been traced back to a single event at a Calgary bar last month.

AHS said in a closure order that as of April 5, at least 27 confirmed cases were linked to the event at Junction, located at 628 Eighth Avenue S.W., on March 22 when customers were socializing within two metres of each other.

OwnerSivaneswaran Ramamoorthy was ordered by AHS to stop hosting social gatherings and provide details of risk mitigation, from safety measures to preventing parties, to an AHS officer for review.

At the time of the event cited in the order,bars and restaurants were allowed to:

• Open at half-capacity.
• Seat up to six people at a tableas long as they were from the same household cohort or lived alone and were dining with their designatedtwo close contacts.

On April 9, bars and restaurants were ordered to stop providing indoor dining, in an attempt to slow surging COVID-19 cases. Nightclubs have been prohibited from operating since March 2020.

• Bars call for crackdown on de facto nightclubs breaking COVID-19 rules

Alberta Premier Jason Kenneyhas previously saidfew COVID-19 cases could be traced to the hospitality sector.

In Calgary, there are currently outbreaks at the following restaurants and bars: Junction, Joey Crowfoot, Joey Eau Claire,National on 17th and Proof Cocktail Bar.

Alberta currently has 14,849 active cases of COVID-19, nearly half of which 6,802in Calgary.