Covid-19 has been in our Health Region since March of 2020 and it was always probable that it would be here on Thetis Island during the past twelve months.
Recently anxiety has ramped up on our island and many people have questions about their risks and safety. The best source of updated and true information is the BC Centre of Disease Control, the BC CDC.
Lots of easily found information can is posted there, such as exposure risks, self-assessment tools, how long isolation lasts, etc.
VIHA and the BC CDC do not publish locations of private citizens, only of organizations (schools, care homes) and commercial businesses that have had an outbreak. Some businesses that have had an employee that tested positive from a community contact (not related to their job) will close as an abundance of caution (ie The Dog House Restaurant in Duncan several weeks ago) to deep clean etc., or simply to save money by laying off their employees for a while. These businesses are not considered a risk and the locations do not appear on the BC CDC website.
Contact risk is considered to be persons who are within 2 metres of a virus-positive person for longer than 15 minutes without a mask. If you consider yourself to be at risk because you and a possible COVID-positive person were within close contact for more than 15 minutes and neither of you were taking precautions to protect each other, then you can request to be tested. Use the self-assessment tool on the BC CDC website to determine if you need to.
The Fire Department will direct you to the best information available for risk reduction. But the TIVFD will NOT discuss possible cases on Thetis Island, nor would you want us to. We take the Privacy Act and patient confidentiality very seriously and you can rely upon our members to never discuss with others any of your personal health issues.
Please access the BC CDC website and navigate around it for info that will answer your questions: http://covid-19.bccdc.ca/ or go to the VIHA website to access another trove of info: https://www.islandhealth.ca/learn-about-health/covid-19/outbreaks-and-exposures
And, did you know that Thetis Island has a Medical Health Officer? You can call the MHO for the Cowichan Region, Mill Bay to Yellow Point, Thetis and Valdes Islands Dr. Shannon Waters, 250-737-2020 in Duncan.
Fire Chief J. Caldbeck
