City of Calgary closing all playgrounds due to coronavirus

The City of Calgary is closing all city-operated playgrounds.

Chief of Calgary Emergency Management Agency Tom Sampson announced at a press conference on Monday morning that the city would be closing all playgrounds in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

The city’s parks, however, will remain open, though Sampson stressed the importance of physical distancing while out in public.

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“We’ve made the very difficult decision to close down playgrounds as it’s just not healthy for anyone at this time to keep them open,” said Sampson.

“We understand the impact this move has on kids and families. It’s hard to remove a trusted space for kids to play right now in the face of schools and daycares closing. But we need to make these sacrifices in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the coming weeks.”

The city will be cordoning off all 1,100 city-operated playgrounds over the next few days.

The release noted that the measures have come into place “as a result of community members not respecting the requirement of social distancing.”