‘Stay within your own community’: IH top doctor says while people can travel within health region, it’s not recommended

KAMLOOPS — The province is coming out with more details on regional travel restrictions on Friday (Apr. 23), but Interior Health’s top doctor says he can’t prevent anyone from travelling within the health authority.

During a media briefing on Thursday, briefing Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Albert De Villiers says all the COVID-19 recommendations are in place and people should stay as close to home as possible, unless it’s absolutely necessary.

“If you can stay within your own community, do that. If you do have to travel a little bit outside your community, do it safely,” said Dr. de Villiers. “If you need to go from Fernie to Kamloops to work for a very good reason, very essential reason — and just essential travel. Do not take your holiday trailer and go to Fernie for the weekend.

Dr. de Villiers added, “It’s still within your health region, so yes you probably won’t get a ticket if that happens, but our recommendation is you can still potentially spread disease or get exposed to the disease.”

Interior Health includes 59 muncipalities — stretching from the northwest part of the Cariboo to the Alberta border in the Kootenays. When asked whether travel restrictions should be in place within a large district like Interior Health, Dr. de Villiers says unless it can be enforced, there is little that can be done.

“(If) I live in Kelowna and I drive to Vernon to go for a swim on the beach, are they actually going to stop me? Are they actually going to have enough people to do this enforcement?” he said. “If you live in Kamloops and you drive to Vernon for a hike in the mountains, are you exposing anybody? Should that be illegal? It’s a very debatable point.”

Starting on Friday, the province has said it will be setting up roadblocks at key travel points like Highway 1 in Hope and BC Ferries terminals to prevent as many people from travelling as possible.