Trail Blazers: A new pathogen emerges

Masked city employees Derrick Simister and John Harper are making room for a third window installation at the Trail Memorial Centre, Dec. 9, 2020, while adhering to the mandatory masks policy put into effect two weeks ago by the city. Trail council modified the municipal policy by making masks mandatory for all employees and contractors when interacting with each other or the public, both indoors and out. Photo: Jim Bailey

City staffer Dave Rugg installing a COVID sign at Gyro Park, 2020. Photo: Jim Bailey

After the province declared farmers market an essential service for access to food in spring 2020, Trail’s incrEDIBLE Farmers Market wasn’t the festive gathering place it’s known for. Instead, the market ran as a retail outlet for food, with strict transmission precautions in place. Tuesday Morning Quilters volunteered to sew masks for all the vendors at the Trail market, which opened its 2020 season on Saturday, May 2.

John Harper, David Hesson, and Travis Drake install a window and brighten up the interior of the Trail Memorial Centre, May 2021. Photo: Jim Bailey

Student-nurse Kendra Waterstreet administers the Pfizer vaccine to Litia Fleming at the Waneta Plaza vaccination clinic, May 14, 2021. Photo: Jim Bailey

Linda Seib, store manager and associate owner of Shoppers Drug Mart in downtown Trail, reflects on the impact of COVID-19, March 2022. Photo: Sheri Regnier

Still controversial is the “anniversary” date of the COVID-19 pandemic — many online sources cite it as Nov. 17, 2019 — the day the first case of COVID-19 was recorded in Wuhan, China.

Some online searches, however, reveal the World Health Organization (WHO) did not officially announce the emergence of a new pathogen until Dec. 31, 2019.

In January 2020, WHO reports it “conducted the first mission to Wuhan and met with public health officials to learn about the response to the cluster of cases of novel coronavirus.”

According to Who.int (official WHO website) in mid-February 2020, the WHO-China Joint Mission began its work. As part of the mission to assess the seriousness of this new disease; its transmission dynamics; and the nature and impact of China’s control measures, teams made field visits to Beijing, Guangdong, Sichuan and Wuhan. The mission consisted of 25 national and international professionals from the People’s Republic of China, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Nigeria, the Russian Federation, Singapore, the United States and WHO. Throughout the global outbreak, WHO regularly sent missions to countries to learn from and support responses, at the request of the affected member state. Particularly in the early stages of the worldwide COVID-19 response, missions went to countries facing relatively high levels of community transmission, such as Iran, Italy, and Spain.

Much still has to be learned about the origin of the disease, the worldwide response, and subsequent treatments. For this week’s Trail Blazers we look at some sights around the city during the pandemic.

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Read more: #Local History (Trail Blazers stories)

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