Alberta announces funds for families impacted by Calgary E. coli outbreak

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was visibly emotional at a Friday press conference, where she addressed Calgary’s daycare E. coli outbreak publicly for the first time.

“What’s believed to have happened is a violation of food safety standards in a shared kitchen and undoubtedly, a violation of parents’ faith in the system,” she said. “When people entrust their child to someone else, they expect they will receive the best possible care.

“Families are watching in anguish watching their children suffer from a preventable cause, they’re enduring extreme stress, afraid of what the outcome will be and how this will effect their children’s health.”

“It’s unimaginable pain and I’m heartbroken by what these families are going through,” Smith continued, before taking several moments to compose herself.

The premier then thanked the medical professionals working to treat the children affected by the outbreak.

Cases rising, hospitalizations stabilize

Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH) Dr. Mark Joffe said in his update that the number of lab-confirmed E. coli cases has risen to 337, while 12 children remain in hospital — six continue to receive dialysis.

Ten kids have been confirmed to have hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a complication affecting the blood and kidneys caused by E. coli, according to the province.

Though the situation is far from over, Joffe says there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

“We anticipate that lab-confirmed cases of E. coli will continue to increase as test results come back but we are cautiously hopeful that we won’t see significantly more children with severe illness,” he explained. “I acknowledge though that this is of little relief to the parents of those children who remain in hospital.”

“But, … while we’re not completely out of the woods yet, we are beginning to see the health impacts of this outbreak start to wane just a bit,” Joffe said.

The province’s top doctor also said Friday there have been 26 secondary transmissions recorded so far — which happens when there is direct contact between an individual and someone already affected by the outbreak.

Though he didn’t have information on whether any of those individuals required treatment in hospital, Joffe said other children (siblings), parents, and even a grandparent have been affected so far.

All of the secondary cases are directly linked to those that stemmed from the daycare outbreak, he added, with many households once again facing another bout.

Central kitchen closed ‘indefinitely’

The closure orders for the 11 daycares have now been rescinded following re-evaluations by health officials, according to the CMOH.

Children and staff planning to return to the affected facilities must provide negative stool samples prior to their return, he added.

On the other hand, Smith said the central kitchen linked to the outbreak will be closed “indefinitely” and that the source of the widespread illness is still undetermined.

Joffe said 45 items were collected from the kitchen for E. coli testing. So far, 19 results have come back, all negative for the bacteria.

The CMOH explained that routine inspections were conducted on the kitchen, acknowledging that while various violations were uncovered, the problems discovered at the Sept. 5 inspection which shuttered the facility were different than before.

He added that concerns raised were always dealt with by the provider.

WATCH: E. coli outbreak considered to be largest in AB

Possible changes to regulations, support for families 

However, the premier acknowledged there may be some holes in current procedure, including the Public Health Act, and that her government is committed to making changes deemed necessary.

“We’re conducting a review of all shared kitchens that serve childcare centres. We will explore regulations and make changes if needed, as I said — if changes are needed to be made, we will make them,” Smith said. “We are always ready to step in and we will always respond to concerns. Families are not alone on this or any other issue.”

The review will be led by Children and Family Services Minister Searle Turton.

Smith said any changes that would come to the Public Health Act would ideally be presented by the end of the year and decided on in 2024.

In a further attempt to ease the suffering of families supporting a child with E. coli as a result of the outbreak, the premier said a one-time compassionate payment of $2,000 per child will be provided by the province.

“We want to help ease as much of that stress as we can and that includes the financial strain caused by parents being away from work and caring for their kids,” Smith said. “Our goal is to get the money to the parents as quickly as we can.”

Smith is also calling on the daycares to reimburse parents for the days their children were out of care due to illness.

Questions on delayed address from Smith

Questions were raised by the public and parents alike on why it took more than a week after the outbreak was declared for the premier to address the situation publicly.

She said a lesson learned from the COVID-19 pandemic is that it isn’t the place of politicians to be involved in health-related matters and that those issues should be investigated by those with the authority to do so, like health officials.

Smith also said there was no sufficient news to announce to the public on the subject until this point.

“It’s a fair criticism, I’ve heard it and I’ll accept that for next time,” she said. “I’ve also experienced and watched a lot of instances where politicians show up at disaster scenes, and people are yelling at them saying ‘We don’t want you here, we want the emergency workers focused on helping us.'”

The premier also said she recognizes that Calgarians and Albertans may have expected an earlier response, and that is something she and her government will take into the future.

“I suppose if we had come out early, we might have had people say, ‘Why are you interfering with the investigation?'” Smith said. “We felt, and you can look back with a 2020 hindsight, and we understand that people expected a response from our government earlier and we’ll do better next time.

“But I think the point remains that the kids were getting the care immediately, the public health investigation began immediately, the parents were informed immediately, and this is part of the reason why they have managed to contain the outbreak even though could have been potentially 1,300 kids and their siblings and family members impacted by this,” the premier said.