Bridge River Lillooet News
979 Main Street PO Box 709 V0K 1V0 Lillooet, BC, Canada

Update: Scw'exmx Family Services has been notified that this youth has been located and is safe.

Just in from Interior Health. Local COVID-19 test was a false positive. There are no confirmed cases in Lillooet. More in Wednesday's paper. Interior Health has requested that the following statement also be provided. "Interior Health has initiated contact with those in isolation to provide further health advice, specifically related to this false positive case."

Dear readers: tomorrow's edition (April 8) will be the last one for us for a while. Be well, stay safe and we'll be in touch by July.

Update on Lillooet Hospital readiness Lillooet & District Hospital staff want everyone in their service area to know plans are in place for dealing with the potential for an influx of COVID-19 patients and that staff is feeling pre-pared and confident. A new Interim Manager for Clinical Operations for Lillooet and Lytton has been appointed effective March 31. Welcome Heidi Schilling, who comes to us with 26 years of experience in planning and operations at various Interior H...ealth sites. As is the case with every facility in the Interior Health region, the Lillooet Hospital is asking the public to come to the hospital for essential visits only due to the COVID-19 situation. Plans are in place at the hospital to deal with COVID-19 cases if and when the need arises. Safety and care of patients and staff are, as always, the highest priorities. Although people will notice physical changes made at the facility to ensure safety, the procedure for admittance, treatment and assessment remains essentially the same. Here is some important information for Hospital visitors: When you enter the hospital now, you’ll notice some changes inside to ensure physical distancing is established. If you are coming to the facility for an essential visit, the front door is open Monday to Friday 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. After hours and weekends, the doorbell at the front door is still the way to be received. All staff are wearing personal protective equipment like safety glasses and masks when assessing patients. A triage system has been set up to assess patients in the safest way. If patient care can be met within the capacity of the Lillooet Hospital, patients will re-main in Lillooet. If patients require care beyond the scope of our hospital, patients will be transferred to another facility. This has not changed from operations before the health orders related to Covid-19. Hospital staff want to say ‘Thank You’ to the community for abiding by essential visits guidelines and reducing demand in the ER as staff prepare for the possibility of an in-flux of COVID-19 patients. The District of Lillooet is very grateful for all of our frontline workers. Our sincere thanks to everyone who continues to work at the Hospital and provide such excellent care! Other helpful links related to COVID-19: Interior Health: https://www.interiorhealth.ca/Pages/default.aspx First Nations Health Authority: https://www.fnha.ca/ BC Centre for Disease Control: http://covid-19.bccdc.ca/ Health Canada: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada.html See more

A message from Lillooet EOC to returning travellers This is a notice to all residents of Lillooet that have travelled outside Canada. The Government of Canada has put in place an Emergency Order under the Quarantine Act that applies to all those who have travelled outside Canada. This includes any travel from the United States. The order is very clear that, by law: If you have recently returned to Canada and you have symptoms, you must ISO-LATE. This is mandatory. If you hav...e recently returned to Canada and you have no symptoms, you must QUARANTINE (self-isolate) yourself for 14 days. This is man-datory. You are at risk of developing symptoms and infecting others. For travellers without symptoms, Mandatory Quarantine means you MUST: go directly to your place of quarantine, without delay, and stay there for 14 days do not go to school, work, other public areas and community settings monitor your health for symptoms of COVID-19 arrange to have someone pick up essentials like groceries or medication for you do not have visitors Those who violate this Order may be subject to fines up to $750,000 and/or a jail sen-tence. Please contact the Community Response Group in Lillooet for assistance with your delivery needs while in isolation/quarantine: email [email protected] or call 250-256-9394. Related Links: Government of Canada Emergency Order BC Orders, Notices and Guidance Other helpful links related to COVID-19: Interior Health: https://www.interiorhealth.ca/Pages/default.aspx First Nations Health Authority: https://www.fnha.ca/ BC Centre for Disease Control: http://covid-19.bccdc.ca/ Health Canada: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada.html BC Ministry of Health Press Releases: https://news.gov.bc.ca/ministries/health If you have health concerns, call HealthLink BC at 8-1-1 Issued by the District of Lillooet Emergency Operations Centre [email protected] See more

COVID-19 notification for Subway, 1209 Hwy 97, Cache Creek Interior Health (IH) has identified a case of COVID-19 at the Subway restaurant located at 1209 Hwy 97, Cache Creek, B.C. Public Health routinely follows up with confirmed cases and close contacts directly to provide advice on public health measures such as self-isolation. As an additional precaution, Interior Health is asking people who visited this Subway restaurant on March 25, 26, and 27 to self-isolate and monito...r for symptoms until April 10 or 14 days from the time of their visit. For information on self-isolation, see the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) guide to self-isolation if you do not have COVID-19 or respiratory symptoms. Symptoms of COVID-19 include the following: Fever Cough Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing Other milder symptoms may include: runny nose, fatigue, body aches (muscles and joints aching), diarrhea, headache, sore throat, vomiting and red eyes. As long as customers remain healthy and do not develop symptoms, they can return to their routine activities 14 days after the date of their visit. If customers develop respiratory symptoms, they need to self-isolate at home for a minimum of 10 days from the time their symptoms develop and until symptoms resolve. See the BCCDC guide to self-isolation if you have respiratory symptoms. Testing is not required for those who have mild respiratory symptoms. If respiratory symptoms worsen, particularly those who are older or have underlying health conditions, call 811 or your health-care provider. For further guidance, please use the BC COVID-19 Symptom Self-Assessment Tool. Please note that community transmission of COVID-19 has been detected in communities across the Interior Health region. All communities should assume COVID-19 cases are present and take appropriate precautions. Additional information on COVID-19 is also available on the IH Website.

Closure of district owned playgrounds and campground As part of our on-going efforts to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, the District of Lillooet is closing all district-owned playgrounds and the district-owned campground effective immediately. While the District wants to encourage all residents to safely enjoy the outdoors, the playground structures pose a particular hazard because of the difficulty in keeping them clean and ensuring they are free of pathogens. Accordi...ngly, the playground structures at the Lillooet REC Centre, Cayoosh Creek Campground, Conway Park and Hangman’s Park will all be affected by the closure. Further, in order to avoid the proliferation of visitors within close proximity to each other, the district will be closing the Cayoosh Creek Campground for both day and overnight use. The district asks that hotels and B&Bs also consider refusing or cancelling all bookings to discourage visitors and intra-provincial travel. We urge everyone to abide by these closures for their own health and for the health and safety of your neighbours. We will be providing updated information as soon as it becomes available to us on our municipal website (www.lillooet.ca) and our District of Lillooet Facebook page (www.facebook.com/visitlillooet). If you have concerns about your health or the health of a loved one, you should call Health Link BC at 8-1-1. If you are looking for more information about the spread and risk of COVID-19 we encourage you to study the facts from the official BC and Canadian health authorities. Interior Health: https://www.interiorhealth.ca/Pages/default.aspx First Nations Health Authority: https://www.fnha.ca/ BC Centre for Disease Control: http://covid-19.bccdc.ca/ Health Canada: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada.html BC Ministry of Health Press Releases: https://news.gov.bc.ca/ministries/health BC COVID-19 Symptoms Self-Assessment Tool: https://covid19.thrive.health See more

A message from School District 74 (Gold Trail) Dear families, On March 17th the British Columbia government announced a suspension of all in-person classes for British Columbia Kindergarten to Grade 12 schools due to COVID-19. Since that announcement, the district has been working to create a plan for the continuity of learning for Gold Trail students. During the week of March 30 to April 3 you will be contacted by a teacher from your school to discuss how learning can work... for you and your child(ren). We recognize that each family is unique and want to create a plan and a way of delivering learning that will work best for you and your child(ren) during this challenging time. Starting the week of April 6 to 10 and going forward, you and your child(ren) will have the resources and contacts you need to proceed with learning from home. While it will be impossible to replicate the learning that occurs in schools and classrooms each day, we are going to do our best to keep connected with you, keep your child learning and provide you the resources and support to make this time as easy as possible. While it is easy to be overwhelmed with the challenges and stress COVID-19 is placing on all of us, this time may also provide an opportunity to engage in learning as a family that includes play, talking, exercise and the outdoors. We look forward to welcoming you and your child(ren) back to school when it is safe to do so. In the meantime, stay healthy. If you have concerns about your health in relation to COVID-19, please go to the BC COVID-19 Symptom Assessment Tool https://covid19.thrive.health/ See more

Lillooet Taxi ceases operation With great difficulties.. Mile 0 Taxi will not be running..we tried to go as long as we could during this pandemic..and we will open back up once everything settles down..We hope that everyone is safe during this time..an we are sorry for the inconvenience at this time...much love to everyone an be safe.. Thank you guys for understanding Please share... - reposted from Lillooet Sells

Essential visit restrictions in effect at all Interior Health sites Effective immediately and until further notice, Interior Health is limiting the number of visitors entering all sites to essential visits only. This decision supports the province-wide response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and reflects the provincial state of emergency. The restriction of visits will help keep our patients, individuals in care, families and health-care workers safe. It also al...igns with the Provincial Health Officer’s recommendations for social distancing. Interior Health is working in partnership with the Ministry of Health and the BC Centre for Disease Control in this effort to flatten the curve of the pandemic. Essential visits include, but are not limited to: Visits for compassionate care (e.g. end of life and critical illness). Visits considered paramount to patient/client care and wellbeing (caregivers and support persons), such as assistance with feeding or mobility. To further limit the number of people entering sites at this time, the same caregiver or support person should attend each essential visit wherever possible. Patient navigators will be at entrances of all facilities to ensure visitors are aware of the new restrictions. In addition, please remember to keep the following in mind: People experiencing fever, cough, runny/stuffy nose, sore throat, and/or diarrhea must not visit any IH facility. Anyone who has travelled outside of Canada in the previous 14 days must not visit patients/residents in any IH facility. Anyone who has tested positive for COVID-19 (or who has been in contact with a person infected with COVID-19) during the previous 14 days must not visit patients/residents in any IH facility. We understand the importance of visits from family and loved ones to our patients and long-term care residents and we appreciate everyone’s support in keeping our patients, families, and health-care workers safe. The BCCDC website is the recommended resource for accurate, current COVID-19 information for British Columbians. The site is being updated frequently and individuals are encouraged to check back often. Interior Health also has frequently updated information on the COVID-19 page on the Interior Health website. See more

Statement from Mayor Peter Busse On behalf of the Council and staff of the District of Lillooet, I would like to assure all citizens that your local government is working diligently to address the unprecedented coronavirus/COVID-19 health emergency we all find ourselves confronting. First and foremost, I would like to urge all citizens to be safe and closely follow the directives of the federal and provincial health authorities. While the risk in our community is currently c...Continue reading

The District of Lillooet Emergency Operations Centre (DOL EOC) has been activated, is monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic and working with other municipal and Indigenous governments to provide information updates. The District of Lillooet is also collaborating regionally on the development of plans and processes on a regular basis. Prevention To support national, provincial and regional efforts to contain and control the spread of COVID- 19, the DOL EOC is asking residents to ...avoid enclosed public spaces and large gatherings. Proper handwashing, covering your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing, and staying home when you’re sick is the best protection. For the health and safety of residents and DOL staff, we have closed municipal facilities and request that you conduct your business with the District by calling 250-256-4289 or email [email protected]. Many District of Lillooet services are operating at a limited capacity with a focus on maintaining full-service levels for essential services. Please visit the municipal website (www.lillooet.ca) and follow the District of Lillooet Facebook page (www.facebook.com/visitlillooet) for updated service information. Anyone seeking information about the spread and risk of COVID-19 is strongly encouraged to learn the facts from the official Canadian health authorities. Interior Health: https://www.interiorhealth.ca/Pages/default.aspx First Nations Health Authority: https://www.fnha.ca/ BC Centre for Disease Control: http://covid-19.bccdc.ca/ Health Canada: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada.html BC Ministry of Health Press Releases: https://news.gov.bc.ca/ministries/health If you have health concerns, call HealthLink BC at 8-1-1 See more

In light of the COVID-19 virus impacting the Province of B.C. the Stl’atl’imx Tribal Police Service offices located at 879 Main Street Lillooet and at 357 IR 10 Mt. Currie will be closed to the public effective immediately. Until further notice, all non-essential service requests such as fingerprinting and requests to speak with a police officer at the front counter cannot be accommodated. The decision to do so is based on recommendations from the federal and provincial gover...nments. All STPS staff will be happy to speak with you by telephone and will remain available to assist with non-emergency complaints and inquiries by calling one of the following telephone numbers: Lillooet STPS: (250) 256-7784 Mt. Currie STPS: (604) 894-6124 The health and safety of our employees and community members is our top priority thus we are following the lead of the Canadian public health authorities to take these preventative measures. We are also requesting that if you require police assistance in our communities, that you advise our call takers of any flu-like symptoms, travel, or contact with those diagnosed with COVID-19. This information is necessary to enable our STPS Officers to take necessary precautions prior to their attendance. In the event of emergency, community members should call 911 or the following numbers: Lillooet STPS emergency number: (250) 256-7767 Mt. Currie STPS emergency number: (604) 894-5757 Deborah Doss-Cody, chief officer Stl’atl’imx Tribal Police Service

The Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (SLRD) is closing its administration office in Pemberton and cancelling all public events effective today, following the regular Board meeting. This is in response to the rapidly changing COVID-19 situation and the Prime Minister of Canada’s direction that all Canadians should, as much as possible, stay home. Essential services will continue to be delivered. The SLRD Administration Office at 1350 Aster Street in Pemberton, BC will be o...pen today, to allow for the March 18, 2020 Board meeting to proceed in order to address urgent business such as adopting the 2020 Financial Plan. The office will close immediately following the Board meeting, and until further notice, with phone and online services continuing at this time. The SLRD can be reached by calling 604-894-6371, or toll-free 1-800-298-7753. A staff directory including telephone numbers and emails is also available on the SLRD website: www.slrd.bc.ca/staffdirectory While there may be delay in reaching staff, employees will be monitoring voicemail and email and will respond as they are able to do so. See more