Sun Peaks records 15 COVID-19 cases as ski season ends

SUN PEAKS (NEWS 1130) — With 15 cases of COVID-19 confirmed at Sun Peaks Resor Saturday, the mayor is worried that workers who left when ski season wrapped up may have taken the virus with them.

In a statement, Dr. Shane Barclay with the Sun Peaks Health Centre says he is worried more tests will come back positive in the coming days.

“The people affected are from all areas of employment and business within Sun Peaks,” it reads. “I would advise everyone that unless absolutely necessary to NOT travel out of Sun Peaks for at least the next 1-2 weeks. Let’s not spread this to everyone else.”

Mayor Al Raine says the first cases were recorded earlier this week, which suggests the virus was circulating before the season wrapped up Monday.

Since then, many workers have travelled home or moved on to summer jobs.

“I’m sure that quite a number have left already, and those that haven’t left already are about to leave. That’s a bit concerning because the spread is in that employee group. Certainly, I don’t like the thought of people leaving here who maybe are asymptomatic, don’t realize that they’ve picked it up, and they’re now transporting it off to their next workplace,” he says.

“They’re certainly not going to be tested here so they’re kind of dragging it on to some other place.”

Raines says he noticed a festive, relaxed atmosphere over the final weekend of the season.

“Quite frankly, I saw in the last week here, people were much more relaxed than they were previously. They’ve let their guard down a bit. I think, especially here as the ski season winds up, there’s a large number of seasonal employees who kind of have a little bit of celebration at the end of the year,” he says, adding his focus is less on trying to figure out how the virus spread and more on trying to contain it.

“We’ve taken steps to make sure that the community is fully aware, and the medical staff here have done the contact tracing with all the people who tested positive, and are trying to get the message out to all of their associates. So, hopefully, we’re gonna have it contained, but it is a bit alarming.”

Raine says the resort municipality has seen fewer than 20 cases in the last year.

“Now, we’ve almost passed that number in one day.”