Alberta Health Services has confirmed that one COVID-19 case has been connected to an illegal rodeo event held in central Alberta earlier this month.
AHS said in a statement that one case of the virus was directly linked in the “No More Lockdowns” rodeo rally, which was held on May 1 and 2, on private land just outside of Bowden.
“AHS is aware of one positive case of COVID-19 directly linked to the rodeo event,” an email statement from AHS reads.
“In some cases symptoms may be mild and individuals may not seek out COVID-19 testing. COVID-19 can also be spread asymptomatically, and an individual may not know they are spreading the virus.”
The two-day event attracted thousands of people and resulted in charges against the organizers, Ty and Gail Northcott. They were served a summons on May 10 for a violation under Section 73(1) of the Public Health Act and entered a not guilty plea in court on Monday.
In a Facebook post, Northcott said they’ll be back in court on June 21.
“Yes there has been some tears through all this, but they are tears of frustration and stress, not fear. If we had fear of what we were getting into we wouldn’t have took this journey,” he said in the post.
“I believe every day there are more and more people waking up as to what is going on and realizing what we have set out to do in this quest.”