Whistler, Dawson Creek express fears and frustrations as COVID-19 variants rapidly spreads

As the province continues to experience the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, a physician in Whistler, B.C., is speaking out about the damage it has created in her community in hopes of discouraging any visitors from outside the area.

On Friday, the government of B.C. restricted non-essential travel between three regional zones within the province in an attempt to limit the spread of the virus. Non-essential travellers outside of their provincial health authority region could be subject to a $575 fine, according to the province's public safety minister.

Dr. Cathy Zeglinski said she's lived in Whistler for the last 30 years. She expressed her concerns and frustrations in a letter to the local paper when she started noticing the coronavirus variant affecting young and healthy people in Whistler.

That letter went viral.

"Most people in Whistler know one person or more who is currently in the hospital," Zeglinski said on the CBC's On the Coast. "I know several ... and it's something we never experienced for an entire year."

She said she was getting increasingly frustrated and worried about the coronavirus variants when she continued to see tourists visit Whistler as public health officials were giving frequent reminders about avoiding non-essential travel.

"The stay-at-home-and-be-good message is no longer working. It's no longer effective," Zeglinski said. "We had a deluge of tourists that we've never seen before in our parks last summer ... and right now we do not want tourists."

She said the problem started when public health officials repeatedly tightened and loosened restrictions. However with the latest travel restriction, Zeglinski said she wants people to understand that "tourism is closed" as residents in Whistler are scared about the more contagious coronavirus variants spreading in their community.

"The nearest hospital ... is a small community hospital with no specialists, no CAT scans, there's no MRI and very limited ventilators," Zeglinski said. "So why people think they can fly in here and bring variants to us is what is frustrating the whole community of Whistler."

Travel restrictions not surprising

Dawson Creek Mayor Dale Bumstead said he's also worried about the COVID-19 virus that's spreading in his community as the northeastern city saw the highest COVID-19 infection rates in the province for the week ending on April 17.

"I didn't need to see data over the last month to know whether it was in our community in a way that had never been before," Bumstead said on the CBC's The Early Edition. "So it's been really worrisome."

Under the new travel rules, signs will be placed along the border between Alberta and B.C. to discourage out-of-province travellers from entering, but no checkpoints will be set up to physically stop people from coming from Alberta.

Bumstead said in the last two months, he's seen the virus affect the RCMP detachment, fire department and even city hall.

"When it gets into your public safety aspect ... you start to worry about the impact of can we provide fire protection services and things like that," he said. "I don't know what this strain is that's in our community but it is one that has spread in a big way."

During the first wave of the pandemic, Dawson Creek saw no active cases of COVID-19, but that started to change when public health officials loosened restrictions last summer and businesses were allowed to open again. 

Bumstead says he's hopeful that the latest travel restrictions, in addition to the vaccination program, will decrease the risk of the virus spreading further into the community.

"I think now people are taking it a little more seriously again ... and we will see us minimise that risk of the spread in our community."