You had COVID questions, and Dr. Mark Joffe had answers

Are playgrounds safe in the COVID-19 pandemic? Yes, but bring hand sanitizer for the kids.

What about hotel rooms? Also yes, but bring your own disinfectant wipes to use on high-touch surfaces in your room.

Should I wear a mask in public places?

"Here's the bottom line," said Dr. Mark Joffe, an Alberta Health Services vice-president and medical director for northern Alberta.

"I think Albertans should be wearing a mask when they are in public places when they cannot be assured that they can stay six feet away from other individuals."

Joffe fielded questions Thursday in a live event hosted by Nancy Carlson, host of CBC's Edmonton News at 6. Here's some of their conversation, edited for length.

How concerning is the full facility outbreak at the Misericordia?

It's exactly why we are concerned about COVID-19. We know that it's in our community, we know that it will continue to be with us for months to come. We know that we need to remain vigilant, and the experience at the Misericordia really just highlights just how potentially infectious and devastating this virus can be.

So we all need to remain on our guard and we need to do everything we can to prevent the transmission, the spread of COVID-19 in the community, and of course in our health-care facilities.

How did so many people get infected at the Misericordia?

We've got teams of people who are involved with looking very carefully at exactly what happened, how it happened. I am going to speculate that there won't be major surprises. We know how COVID-19 is transmitted … it's transmitted at close range, direct contact, spread by droplets. And so I suspect that what we will learn is that those were the mechanisms of transmission.

What we do need to understand is, did the personal protective equipment work, did it not work, was it used appropriately, was it not used appropriately?

The events at the Misericordia are an opportunity for us to learn and to get better … We are looking into the mechanisms of transmission, how individuals acquired infections at the Misericordia, and again that will help us prevent that as we move forward.

We're seeing more cases now in Edmonton. Is that a concern?

As we began to reopen services that had been closed for two to three months, we knew we would start to see more cases, and that's exactly what's happened.

We are seeing low numbers of cases overall. We've certainly seen more cases in Edmonton than what we had seen in the month or two prior. It's not unexpected. And I think the important thing to understand is when we look into the cases we are seeing, they are all linked.

You can see exactly how the transmission is occurring. We've had some family events — meals, funerals, those sorts of events — where there has been transmission. So when we do our contact tracing, it's usually fairly apparent where an individual has acquired their COVID-19.

There are very, very few surprises. So, someone who comes to an assessment centre, for example, is screened and is found to be positive, and has absolutely no link to anybody. That is very, very, very rare.

What this tells us is that COVID-19 is not rampant, widespread in our communities. It's fairly contained and there are little pockets of infection. And again, it's a warning to Albertans that the virus is still here, and you still need to be cautious.

Is interprovincial travel still not recommended?

Dr. [Deena] Hinshaw, our chief medical officer of health, is discouraging non-essential travel, and I think that would be the official recommendation. So if you don't have to travel between provinces, it's best to stay within Alberta. I think this is a great time to celebrate Alberta. It's a great time to support Alberta businesses, the Alberta hospitality industry.

Enjoy our beautiful province. Travel to parts of the province you've never been to before. Grande Prairie, High Level, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat — wonderful places to visit. Red Deer of course, many other places that I haven't mentioned. Peace River — beautiful part of Alberta.

Maybe stay in Alberta, spend your tourist dollars here in Alberta.