Reflection and Hope: A Look at the U of A’s COVID-19 Response One Year Later

On behalf of the U of A’s Public Health Response Team, Andrew Sharman reflects on the community’s collective support through an unknowable year.

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One year ago today, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. We’ve all been touched by this emergency. We’ve all had to adapt because of it. Today, on Canada’s National Day of Observance, our own global U of A community is reflecting alongside friends, family, colleagues, and neighbours. We are thinking about those we have lost. We are thinking about those who continue to fight on the frontlines against COVID-19 every day. And, we are thinking about how each of us has had to overcome the various obstacles that COVID-19 put in our way during the last year.

On this day of observance, there are three key reflections that I would like to share with you on behalf of our university’s Public Health Response Team.

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Pharmacy students providing behind-the-scenes medication care at the COVID-19 Emergency Shelter as part of the Mint Health Drugs project at the Edmonton EXPO Centre. (Photo taken Spring 2020, before the indoor mask mandate, so masks were taken off for photo).

First and foremost, gratitude for our health care community

The U of A could not be more proud of the important, ongoing work of our frontline health care workers, students in training, and instructors giving them the skills they need to excel, and the expertise, research and science that supports them through it all. We recognize your daily advances are moving us all forward. You have our collective gratitude. 

As an institution, we have been pleased to step forward to assist the healthcare system by providing the Butterdome to Alberta Health Services last spring as a Treatment and Assessment Centre, and again this year as a Pandemic Response Centre.

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To celebrate 2020 Green and Gold Days, members of Human Resources, Health Safety and Environment (HRHSE) joined a video call wearing their best green and gold outfits.

Community safety is a shared responsibility, and shared success

‘Success’ may not be the first word that comes to mind when reflecting on the last year; however, it is important to note that success is not always one, significant, grand accomplishment. Rather, it can be an accumulative effect, and a shared effort — especially when it comes to emergency response. The extraordinary efforts you put into adapting to online learning, the mask you put on before coming to campus, the latest email update you read from the PHRT, the modifications you made to your home office, the Library Curbside Pickups you scheduled, the efforts you made to find a space to listen to lectures and study, the Return to Campus Plan you created — all the adjustments made this past year are making our community’s response to COVID-19 successful.

March 2020 - March 2021 by the numbers
  • 10,000 courses delivered remotely
  • 2,500+ students studying from outside of Canada
  • 85 COVID-19 research projects
  • 78 PHRT updates in your inbox
  • 20,000+ completions of the Campus Safety eCourse
  • 47,000+ Here@UAlberta campus check-ins
  • 4,200+ compassionate cards sent amongst the U of A employee community
  • 50,000+ masks given away to students by the U of A Bookstore on behalf of generous donors 
  • 420+ students and staff isolated safely in the U of A’s accommodation program

Together, we are ready for what comes next 

Alberta’s vaccine rollout program turned an important corner last week, bringing a more tangible hope for when a semblance of normalcy may be possible. With that update, as well as the work that each of us has contributed over the past year, and the U of A’s 2021-22 planning currently underway, we have our sights set on renewing campus life. We are aiming to have our community in their regular work and study routines on our campuses in significant numbers by September, and back to normal by January 2022. We want to see as many of you as possible in Edmonton and Camrose this September. For those that are still unable to be present in person, virtual support will continue to be available. Together, we will take this extraordinary next step with the resilience, tenacity, and knowledge we have already gained along the way.

To the whole of our U of A community: thank you again for your continued flexibility and compassion. As you reflect on this year, I hope you will join me in looking back with pride, and forward, with hope.


Andrew Sharman is the Executive Lead of the U of A’s Public Health Response Team and Vice-President (Facilities and Operations).