As Tumbler Ridge moves into its fifth week of social isolation, the number of cases in the north are slowly ticking up.
On Monday, April 13, as the paper was going to press, 11 new deaths had just been announced, bringing the number of people who have died to 69.
Dr. Bonnie Henry also announced 45 new cases in the last 48 hours, bringing the total to 1490.
The 20 new cases from Sunday to Monday were amongst the lowest increases in new cases since the province started announcing new cases over a month ago.
In the north, the number has climbed to 26. (By April 15, that number was 30).
This includes at least one case featuring a worker at the Peace Villa Care home in Fort St. John, though Northern Health says there have been no symptoms among the residents, at this time.
The worker was also a member of the Blueberry First Nations, which has set up road blocks to control access into and out of the community.
The location of the other 25 cases is not being made public, a cause of some concern for people in the north.
MLA Mike Bernier spoke to Council about the provincial response over the phone at the most recent meeting.
He says his approach is to treat it as if it is everywhere. “We are acting like it could be in Dawson Creek, Chetwynd, Tumbler, says Bernier.
He says Northern Health is mandated by law not to release information about where cases are. “The only person who is able to release anything is Dr. Henry or the Minister of Health,” he says, “and only under extreme circumstances or when there is high risk. When I asked the question, they said if there was any kind of situation in the Peace that placed the population at risk, they would then release information to protect people and get the word out there.”
He says this has been a hot topic across the province, and different provinces are handling it different. He points to Alberta where they are tracking cases by location. But in BC, that’s not the case. “If someone is contracted and wants to share it, there’s no issue with that.”
At the time he came before council, nobody in the north had done that. A few days later, the family of the Peace Villa Care Worker came forward to announce she had contracted the disease.
“We need to act as if it is here, because honestly it probably is,” he says. “There’s probably someone who has been exposed to it in your community who has minor symptoms. The message I’m giving everybody is act as if it is already there.”
He says he’s talked to people who say if they knew where the cases were, they could act accordingly. But he’s also heard from people who have told him the would be more anxious. “People tell me if they heard it is Tumbler Ridge, they would be more anxious. We have to be more sensitive to that,” he says.
He says over the last few weeks he’s learned more about epidemiology than he ever thought he would. “People are being told to self isolate because we are not doing 100 percent testing.”
Part of that is that testing is limited. But it’s also a limitation on how effective the testing is, especially in the earlier days. And in the north, there is no way to process those tests, so they have to be sent out, which takes a week. “So the number of positive cases that are out there that have been identified are probably just a portion of the numbers there actually is.”
Bernier says the communities in the north have been doing well with isolating. “I’d like to give a big shout out to Dr. Helm because he’s been ruthless in getting information out.”
