Dr. Bonnie Henry (File photo/Province of B.C.)

By Pete McIntyre

New restrictions on region

Bars & nightclubs ordered to shutdown in Central Okanagan to curb rising COVID-19 cases

Aug 6, 2021 | 2:47 PM

KELOWNA, B.C. – COVID-19 cases continue to increase in the Central Okanagan which has resulted in more, stronger restrictions being put in place.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced Friday the following restrictions have been implemented for the area from Lake Country to Peachland, including Kelowna and West Kelowna:

• Outdoor personal gatherings such as parties, will be limited to 50 people
• Indoor personal gatherings can include five people, or one other household
• Indoor organized gatherings will be limited to 50 people
• Outdoor organized gatherings are limited to 50 people
• Nightclubs and bars will be closed as of today
• Restaurants will go back to having limitations on indoor and outdoor dinings, with groups of up to six people.
• Liquor licences will be limited to serving until 10 p.m.
• Casinos can remain open under current guidelines and comply with restaurant guidelines
• Fitness facilities: indoor low intensity classes can continue with capacity limits and indoor high intensity group exercises will be suspended
• Limit on number of people at vacation rentals and houseboats to five people plus the occupants.
• The mask mandate will continue for all indoor public places and can be enforced by bylaw officers.
• If you have travel plans to the Central Okanagan this weekend, it’s strongly advised they be rescheduled or postponed.
• People should keep a list who is at their events for contact tracing

The events and gathering orders will be enforced as of Monday, Aug. 9, while the other measures around bars, nightclubs and fitness take effect today.

Dr. Sue Pollock, chief medical health officer for Interior Health, said the measures put in place one week ago, have not produced any significant impact on cases.

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She said cases have tripled from 320, to 1,200 today.

“That includes 700 active cases, with 31 people in hospital and ten in critical care, mostly people in the 20 to 40 year old age range,” Pollock told a media conference.

Health Minister Adrian Dix said 56 per cent of the province’s active cases are in the IH region with the “vast majority” of those in the Central Okanagan, with 46 per cent of intensive care cases and 37 per cent of hospitalizations also from the hard hit region.

Dix said all of the province’s cases in intensive care on Thursday were unvaccinated people.