The qathet regional district, along with the City of Powell River and the Tla’amin Nation are asking tourists to postpone trips to the area.
Emergency Services Manager, Ryan Thoms says this decision will help keep residents in the community safe.
“Public health needs to be the first priority and limiting exposures include really all unnecessary travel and we’d like to make sure people are adhering to that and remembering that we live in a beautiful but very small community and we have limited health resources here and it’s not a great place right now for visiting tourists or other types of visitors,” says Thoms.
He added that while local leaders can introduce rules and policies, the community also needs to do its part to limit the spread of COVID-19.
“We’re trying our best here to follow the advice of the ministry of health and so none of this is being taken lightly and we’re working hard to be part of the coordination and sharing of information. We’re really expecting people to do their best and we appreciate that this is not easy on anybody but certainly limiting any non-essential travel is what we’re encouraging.”
“This is a time to flatten the curve, to limit exposures. None of us want to see some of the difficult things we’ve seen around the globe. We want to minimize that and that takes all of us right now doing our best.”
The district says the recommendation to restrict travel to the area is temporary.
The regional district says it’s monitoring the COVID-19 situation and the restricted travel decision will be closely reviewed as more information becomes available.
