COVID-19 City Recovery Update
July 24, 2020 at 4:00pm
Summer is in full swing and the sun is finally out. You will have certainly noticed that our town is busy with locals and tourists enjoying our local businesses. Now, more than ever is a good time to check-in with our own habits and make sure that we are all doing our part in keeping the cases numbers low.
According to the BC Centre for Disease Control (CDC), there has been a spike in cases for the Interior Region. July 17th marks the highest number of reported new cases (20 cases).

https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/a6f23959a8b14bfa989e3cda29297ded
Public Exposure Locations
As a precaution, Interior Health updates this list with the locations and times of known possible exposures to COVID-19 to the public in our region.
https://news.interiorhealth.ca/news/public-exposures/
Other health authorities are publishing the same information. If you’re out travelling, please keep an eye out on these websites:
Vancouver: http://www.vch.ca/covid-19/public-exposures
Fraser: https://www.fraserhealth.ca/covid19exposure#.XxoB9Z5KiUm
Island: https://www.islandhealth.ca/learn-about-health/covid-19/outbreaks-and-exposures
Joint statement on B.C.’s COVID-19 response (Adrian Dix and Dr. Bonnie Henry) – July 21st
Interesting read from our top officials. They are urging us to be prudent.
“As we have seen in many other places, a few missteps can quickly result in a significant resurgence in new cases of COVID-19.
https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2020HLTH0038-001338
Weekly Surveillance Report – July 17-23
The Province publishes a weekly “Surveillance” report, which provides a summary of what is happening in BC. This week’s reports indicate that the largest number of new cases were in the Interior. A total of 92 new cases have been reported.
Most of those cases have been reported in the Okanagan Health Service Delivery area with only 1 case in the Kootenay Boundary. See Map below:
More information can be found at http://www.bccdc.ca/health-info/diseases-conditions/covid-19/data

Featured Local Business
In this update, we have decided to share the Kootenay Co-op’s story as they have been a leader in providing a safe environment for its customers and staff. They have recently implemented mandatory masks for their staff in order to help keep the community safe. Read their story:
The Kootenay Co-op staff are now required to wear masks at work. As per their COVID protocols, the Co-op stated that would implement mandatory masks for staff in the event that the case count would increase by 10%. Due to a recent increase in cases in the Interior Health region, the Co-op has followed through on its commitment to making masks mandatory for their staff.
“Wearing a protective face covering is an act of love, not fear,” said Ari Derfel, General Manager of the Co-op. Customers are not required to wear masks at this time. “We hope that customers seeing our staff wearing masks will help to normalize mask-wearing and inspire them to follow suit on their own” mentions Mr. Derfel.
More information can be found at https://www.kootenay.coop/covid-19/

Keep Us Open for Business Campaign
With many people out on vacation, we need to make extra efforts to keep numbers low. This will keep us all safe and ensure that our local businesses can stay open.
Keep us Open for Businesses. Remember to:
- Practice 2m physical distancing
- Keep your group small and check-in with each other
- Wash or sanitize your hands often
- Stay home is you are sick or have any symptoms.
Be respectful, be kind, we’re all in this together.
