The Burns Lake Thrift Store is closing its doors again with no firm date on when it would be opening up again.
“In light of the recent rise in COVID-19 cases within the community, we felt it was best to take extra precautions. The Thrift Store will be closed until further notice to ensure the health and safety of all our volunteers and customers. Unfortunately we will not be accepting donations during this time” said Sara Lynne, the president of the Burns Lake and District Healthcare Auxiliary, in an email to Lakes District News.
The case numbers in the northern region have been on the rise for the past few weeks and the provincial health officer had to put in place stricter regulations; from mandatory masks to restricting events and public gatherings.
At the time of going to press, the numbers for Northern Health were at 928 total cases of which 685 had recovered, 33 were hospitalized, 11 were in critical care and there were eight confirmed COVID-19 deaths. Provincially, of the total of 35,422 cases, 24,928 had recovered, 325 were hospitalized, 80 were in critical care and there were 481 confirmed deaths due to the virus.
Earlier this year, the thrift shop closed down due to COVID-19 as most of the volunteers at the shop are seniors. They however opened on July 1, with major changes and restrictions like keeping hand sanitizers at the entrance, urging customers to wear masks, allowing a maximum of six people at a time inside the store, encouraging that one person per household enter the store at a time, closing down the changing rooms and shutting down the bathrooms for public use. The store had also asked parents to not bring kids under the age of 10 and to further discourage families from bringing in kids, the shop temporarily removed the toys section from the store.
In the past, the store was cash-only but due to the pandemic they started accepting debit or credit for payments.
With the rising number of cases in the north, the store, which sees primarily seniors as volunteers decided to close, keeping in mind the safety of its volunteers and customers.
The last day that the store was open was on Dec. 4, with no opening date given.
Priyanka Ketkar
Multimedia journalist
@PriyankaKetkar
priyanka.ketkar@ldnews.net
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