Edmonton Police, Fire and transit dealing with shortages caused by Omicron

Omicron cases are spiking and Edmonton city services are feeling it. Police, firefighters and transit are all dealing with staff who are infected or are at home isolating.

Edmonton police told CityNews, nearly 200 sworn members and civilian staff are off work. One hundred of those are positive with COVID-19.

Although EPS expects over 110 staff members to return over the next week — they’re readjusting staffing to make up for the shortage.

At Edmonton Fire Rescue, 53 frontline firefighters are at home with COVID-19. Four stations declared an outbreak and the fire chief says they’ve called in as many firefighters as they can to prevent disruption, but they’re still forced to prioritize calls.

“Site visits for fire inspections, other than business licenses and complaints, have been reprioritized until Jan. 14 to reduce the potential risk to staff and the public,” explained fire chief Joe Zatylny.

Zatylny adds fire stations experiencing outbreaks have been decontaminated and restaffed.

The fire chief says vaccination rates are high among the frontline, as 67 Edmonton firefighters are unvaccinated.

“Everyone who tested positive took appropriate precautions to manage the spread.”

Transit services in the city are also facing high COVID cases. The local transit union president told CityNews on Wednesday that 50 operators in the Edmonton area have tested positive. Adding not only is COVID a concern — but that transit peace officers have experienced increased weapons and drug calls during the pandemic. Calling it a severely demoralizing environment.

“Our transit peace officers every single day, all day, every day are administering naloxone or whatever antidote they’re using is way up. The number of weapons complaints have gone wild,” explained Steve Bradshaw, transit union president.

Edmonton city services are just some of the many Albertans being hit by the latest wave of the pandemic, Dr. Deena Hinshaw announced the province identified more than 4,700 new cases of COVID-19, on Wednesday.

-With files from Josh Ritchie