As of today, there are 56 cases of COVID-19 in Alberta. Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer has cited other jurisdictions, like Singapore, who have successfully dealt with the spread of the virus without closing schools and has stated that any closure will be long term (at least until September) as the virus is not going to be dealt with in a couple of weeks. As you are all probably aware, Alberta has closed all schools effective immediately. This means that whatever strategy we implement should be sustainable for the next six months in case Dr. Deena Hinshaw’s original timeline prediction proves accurate.
As previously posted, Silent River Kung Fu has implemented procedures that meet or exceed Alberta Health Services (AHS) COVID-19 recommendations and we are committed to provide a safe environment to our students. With less than 25 people on our mats at any given time, our environment is low risk if everyone is following AHS’s personal hygiene guidelines and above all else, staying home if they are ill.
To minimize risks and fears we will be implementing some strategies beginning next week:
All contact during training will be avoided. This means we will be focusing on forms, weapons, and other more distance friendly techniques during the pandemic.
We will be limiting parental access to the kwoon to minimize the number of people in the building at any given time.
We encourage everyone to not wear their uniform to the kwoon. Please arrive in your street clothes and change into your uniform on site. At the end of class, change back into your street clothes before leaving the kwoon and take home your uniform and wash it before the next class.
Social isolation is an important strategy when it comes to flattening out the infection rate of this virus. Therefore if the infection intensity in our community rises, we will be shutting down open classes and switching over to online lesson streaming until it is safe to open the kwoon to full classes again.
Those of you in the higher risk categories may wish to isolate yourselves sooner than others. Therefore beginning after Spring Break, we will be launching SRKF Livestream so those of you who choose to self-isolate can attend classes from your own home. In the event of new guidelines from Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer that compel us to shut down open classes, our SRKF Livestream option will be available to everyone.
It is our goal to increase our level of service to our students in this time of crisis. I hope we can count on your support during this difficult time to ensure our school has a healthy and long history ahead of it.