CALGARY -- An infectious disease expert at the University of Calgary says its paramount that people continue to avoid public places and the reward from today's efforts will pay dividends in the coming weeks and months.

"We need people to stay away from each other, stay away from any public places," said Dr. Vanessa Meier-Stephenson. "I know people are getting a little frustrated perhaps being trapped inside but now is the time when it's really important to do that.

"In terms of enforcing these sorts of measures with government intervention, police intervention, I'm not really able to comment on how effective that will be but obviously we need to keep this trend going, this momentum going. We need to stay inside, we need to keep people from each other."

Meier-Stephenson says Alberta is approaching a transition point in the incubation periods from the first wave of patients who became sick and they may require hospitalization.

"If everyone's going to become infected in the first week and everybody shows up at the hospital doors we're going to have a very difficult problem," she said.

"If we can keep people healthy enough and long enough that peak of the outbreak is spread over a longer timeframe — over a month, two months, three months — and we'll be much better to prepare each individual person."

The ongoing effort to 'flatten the curve' — reducing the immediate demand on the health care system by attempting to have the inevitable spread of the virus stretched out over time —  requires that people sacrifice aspects of  their regular day-to-day activities. Meier-Stephenson says those actions will improve access to treatment at a time when trials are being conducted on potential vaccines and medication.

"Vaccines do require quite a bit of time to ensure the safety," she said. "We can't just inject with vaccines into people without having rigorous testing. Estimates (are) anywhere from six months to two years. There are various trials already started on some candidates so that's actually quite promising."

Meier-Stephenson adds that trials of drugs with known safety profiles that have been used for other conditions are also underway.