Overview

Under current Chief Medical Officer of Health Orders, businesses and entities are required to:

• implement practices to minimize the risk of transmission of infection among attendees;
• provide procedures for rapid response if an attendee develops symptoms of illness;
• ensure that attendees maintain high levels of sanitation and personal hygiene;
• comply, to the extent possible, with the COVID-19 General Relaunch Guidance, this guidance, and any other applicable Alberta Health guidance found at: https://www.alberta.ca/guidance-documents.aspx.

This has been developed to support canvassing and campaigning operations in reducing the risk of transmission of COVID-19 among attendees (including workers, volunteers and the general public). The guidance provided outlines public health and infection prevention and control measures specific to these businesses.
This document and the guidance within it is subject to change and will be updated as needed. Current information related to COVID-19 can be found: https://www.alberta.ca/covid-19-information.aspx.
COVID-19 Risk Mitigation

General

• Encourage and facilitate attendees to stay up to date with developments related to COVID-19.
• Notify staff and volunteers of the steps being taken to prevent the risk of transmission, and the importance of their roles in these measures.
  • Encourage respiratory etiquette (e.g., coughing or sneezing into a bent elbow, promptly disposing of used tissues in a lined garbage bin).
  • Encourage staff and volunteers to practice hand hygiene before and after a visit.
• All Albertans must follow CMOH Order 05-2020, which establishes legal requirements for quarantine and isolation.
  • Anyone with symptoms of COVID-19; with a history of international travel in the last 14 days; or with close contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19 in the past 14 days must remain at home.
• Operators and attendees should keep up to date with masking requirements set at the local level.
• Encourage staff and volunteers to wear masks where direct interaction occurs with members of the public.
  • Ask staff and volunteers to supply their own mask or have a supply of masks on hand.
  • For canvassing shifts that are longer in duration, it may be necessary for mask changes. Masks should be changed when damp, soiled or torn.
• Maintain physical distancing of 2 metres between staff, volunteers and members of the public, where possible.
• Consider implementing daily monitoring of staff and volunteers for symptoms of fever, sore throat, cough, runny nose or difficulty breathing.
  o Staff and volunteers may use the Alberta Health Services COVID-19 Self-Assessment tool.
• Obtain a sufficient supply of masks, hand sanitizer, hand soap, and cleaning materials before starting canvassing shifts.
  It is strongly recommended that staff and volunteer contact information and canvassing shifts be kept for a rolling 4 week period. This will assist in public health contact tracing where necessary. See the General Relaunch Guidance for more information
• Providing information is voluntary for staff and volunteers. An organization must obtain an individual’s consent and notify them about the purpose and legal authority for the collection.
• Any personal information that is collected for COVID-19 contact tracing can only be used for this purpose, unless an individual provides their consent.

Campaigning

• Ensure any group training events adhere to the Guidance for Indoor Events and ensure appropriate capacity restrictions are in place.
• Ensure volunteers receive appropriate training and understand the importance of the organization’s safety plan, including safe distancing, appropriate mask use and appropriate materials handling protocols.
• While in the community, ensure campaign teams observe the Guidance for Multi-family Dwellings, Condominiums and Apartment Buildings.
• Encourage the appropriate use of online forms to help canvassing teams reduce the number of forms which must be handled by multiple people for tracking canvassing routes and other campaign information collected by volunteers.
• Encourage the online distribution of campaign materials, where possible.

Door-to-Door Interactions and Fundraising

• Bring hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol content to use before and after each interaction.
• Wear a mask if you may be required to come within 2 metres of another person who is not from the same household or cohort.
• Bring disinfectant wipes to disinfect touched surfaces, such as payment devices, door knobs and door bells.
• After ringing the bell or knocking, step back at least two metres before speaking with residents.
• Use contactless payment, where possible, such as directing residents to web payment options.
• Charitable organizations accepting cash donations should consider using an enclosed container with a slot to avoid handling cash.
• Organizations doing collections (such as bottle or food drives) should consider advising neighborhoods of the drives in advance through fliers, newsletters and/or social media and conduct contactless pick-up where possible.
• Avoid using sharing high-touch objects such as shared pens, clipboards and tablets.

Rapid Response Plan

• Develop a rapid response plan that sets out a plan for responding to symptomatic volunteers or staff.
  • Immediately isolate the symptomatic person from others.
  • Clean and disinfect all surfaces they may have come into contact with.
  • Require hand hygiene and masking of the symptomatic person until they can travel home for isolation.