Despite rumours of a COVID-19 outbreak in the Creston Valley circulating on social media, zero cases among seasonal workers have been confirmed as of August 6, 2020.
Creston Valley Hospital Chief of Staff Dr. Nerine Kleinhans outlined how and when an outbreak is reported and contained should one arise.
“An outbreak is declared by the health region when a certain number of people who share a common space are diagnosed with COVID-19 within a 14-day period,” Dr. Kleinhans said in a Facebook post. “In some places, it only takes a single person getting COVID-19 for an outbreak to be declared. This is true for places where people are more likely to get very sick OR there are people at high risk of passing it on to people who might get very sick, such as in long-term care facilities or farms.”
How Interior Health (IH) dealt with such an outbreak was illustrated in July, 2020 when a farm in Oliver B.C reported two cases on site.
SEE: 45 staff ordered to stay put in Oliver farm during COVID-19 testing
Dr. Klienhans noted the local effort made to keep COVID-19 at bay while hundreds of seasonal workers set up camp in farms and other sites during the harvest season.
“The farmers, the Town of Creston and Fields Forward are doing a phenomenal job keeping not only the workers but also the citizens of Creston safe,” said Dr. Kleinhans.
However, Creston has not been immune to COVID-19.
Wearing a mask in public, frequent hand washing and physical distancing measures are still being encouraged by IH. Not every case is made public, as has been IH’s mandate from the start of the pandemic.
“There have been COVID-19 positive cases in Creston in the past six months, but these will only be made public IF Public Health does not feel confident that they reached all the contacts to ensure a sufficient quarantine period,” Kleinhans added.
For more details on Interior Health’s COVID-19 guidelines and updates visit: news.interiorhealth.ca/covid-19
