Mayor Don McCormick confirmed Friday, April 9, 2021 that Interior Health had informed him that there were four active cases in Kimberley. As of Monday morning, he said he was aware that there were more confirmed over the weekend, and the count was up to 13, but the numbers were incomplete as not all test results were in.
“Numbers are up all over the East Kootenay right now,” he said. He added that most of the cases are locals, most in their 20s, and contact tracing is tracking them back to social events.
He urges people to continue to carefully follow all protocols around COVID-19
A number of people are echoing the sentiment that now is the time to be extra vigilant about all protocols.
Dr. Kate Buddo, Chair of the Kimberley Medical Clinic and a family physician, urges residents to not be complacent with respect to physical distancing, only coming into contact with members from their household and avoiding non-essential travel. She confirmed that additional cases were identified over the weekend, but again did not have exact numbers.
She also advises that things will be changing at the clinic during this uptick in cases.
“As a result of the increase in positive cases, we will be significantly limiting our in-person appointments at the clinic for at least the next few weeks to avoid traffic flow and patient contact within the clinic,” she said. “Of course, we will continue to see emergency cases. We greatly apologize for this inconvenience but are hopeful that we will quickly return to offering more in-person appointments.”
Selkirk Principal Clint Dolgopol also sent an email to parents over the weekend explaining that they were aware of concerns in the school community, but that they had not been notified by IH of any student or staff being confirmed to have COVID-19. IH would notify the school if any cases were discovered and the school would follow the SD6 protocol from there.
“That said, we have heard that there have been a few community cases which is why the concerns and rumours about possible Selkirk cases have come up. This may lead to the need for close contacts to self-isolate for a period of time and that could potentially impact Selkirk students. We hope that is not the case but will work to support any student who is required to self-isolate by providing them with as much work as we can to keep them caught up.
“We’ll continue to follow the guidance of Interior Health and will communicate with our learning community as needed. Essentially, no news is good news in terms of a positive case within our school community.
“In the meantime, recent cases in the area highlights the importance of carefully following the protocols we have in place including doing the daily health check, staying home if sick, handwashing, and mask wearing.”
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