A First Nation on B.C.’s southern coast is advising its citizens to shelter in place after four cases of COVID-19 were confirmed by laboratory testing.
The Tla’amin Nation said Tuesday (Sept. 8) that along with the confirmed cases, there were a number of citizens experiencing symptoms of the virus.
The Tla’amin are located just north of Powell River on the Sunshine Coast and the nation has about 1,100 citizens, with 60 per cent of them under the age of 40.
The shelter in place order went into effect Tuesday at 5 p.m. and will stay for 72 hours.
“During this time, access to the Tla’amin Nation is being limited to one single access point. We are strongly encouraging people to stay home,” the nation said in a statement.
However, community care teams will continue to run safety checks on the nation’s most vulnerable and COVID-19 testing is available.
“We are a strong and resilient community and we will work our way through this. However, it is time to attack this virus by controlling the spread aggressively with a community lock down,” said Tla’amin leader Hegus Clint Williams. “We ask our community members to abide by and be respectful of this lock down and we also ask our friends and neighbours to respect this as well, by not having any unnecessary visits within our community.”
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