Leaders in small communities in Canada, along British Columbia’s Central Coast are calling on the province to restrict travel into the region, fearing that visitors will introduce COVID-19.
Officials say there’s been an influx of visitors travelling into the region. Health-care centres in communities near Bella Bella aren’t equipped to handle the coronavirus outbreak, according to the Central Coast Regional District.
For example, the lone hospital in Bella Bella only has one ventilator, said director Daniel Bertrand.
“We don’t have health-care resources to handle an outbreak, and we’re seeing people coming to their summer homes. We’re at the start of our tourism season,” said Bertrand.
“We’re seeing RVs coming down the hill into Bella Coola, people travelling by yacht, even from as far away as Washington state,” he added. “It’s very easily noticeable in a small town when you seen an Alberta licence plate, a New York licence plate or a red sports car drive by a farm.”
The district’s travel restriction order was removed by the province when Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth suspended all local states of emergency (except for the City of Vancouver) last week.
It has since been calling on the province to prohibit non-essential travel into the region, largely out of concerns for a vulnerable population.
“Sixty-five per cent of our population in the regional district is Indigenous, and the vast majority of Indigenous language speakers are senior citizens,” said Bertrand. “And they’re really the national treasures of the First Nations in the region. And they disproportionately live in overcrowded housing and are susceptible COVID-19.”
Destination B.C. vice president Maya Lange says communities that rely heavily on tourism are taking the pandemic seriously.
“Tourism is a $20 billion industry. It employs about 167,000 people, and there’s about 19,000 tourism businesses. So it’s extremely painful for the entire industry,” she said.
“Our number one priority is making sure we can flatten the curve as quickly as possible so we can get back out to exploring British Columbia again,” she said.
2020 CBC/Radio-Canada. All rights reserved.