A Message from Mayor Karen Elliott - COVID-19

As we enter the weekend, I wanted to reach out to the community to talk (a little bit at length) about looking after each other and working together to see us through the COVID-19 situation.

As we know, the information about COVID-19 is evolving regularly. It is important, as we seek to protect ourselves and our loved ones that we are reading and sharing factual information from trusted sources. I have posted some links below to help you find the information that will help you understand COVID-19 and the advice we should all follow to keep ourselves and others healthy.

First though, a few facts on who is doing what in our province. The response to a pandemic, like this one, is led by the provincial Ministry of Health, which means Vancouver Coastal Health will direct the response to COVID-19 in the Sea to Sky region. As a municipality, we will receive information directly from Health Emergency Management BC and the local Medical Health Officer. The Medical Health Officer will provide the District with information on risk reduction measures.

As a local government our primary function is to ensure continuation of operations and essential services (water, sewer, waste collection, etc.), share verified information with our community, take measures to protect our first responders, ensure we reduce risk for staff and customers in our facilities, liaise with local partners to understand the short and long term impacts of this outbreak on their operations, and respond to any requests from Vancouver Coastal Health. So that is our job here at the District and our staff are working very hard in this regard. Here is what I think your job is as a community.

• Take care of yourself first and foremost and then look out for others in the community. It is still cold and influenza season so if you are sick at all, just stay home if possible. We’ll all feel better if you do.
• Connect with those in your neighbourhood or across town that are perhaps more vulnerable due to age or who are immune compromised to see what you can do to help. Fetch their groceries, prescriptions, or mail as a helping hand.
• If we get to a point where people are self isolating then make it easy for them and deliver them any groceries, prescriptions or other things (board games, flowers, a pot of soup?) they may need and drop them at the door.
• Don’t panic. Please share only verified and trusted information with others and not the latest rumour you read online.
• When out shopping, don’t over-buy at the grocery store. The advice is to purchase a few extra items over time, not bulk buying.

We can be resilient if we seek to walk through this together, so sharing and helping each other out is a big part of that. I know that selfless, helping spirit is in your DNA, Squamish, so this may be a time when it really needs to shine.

None of us know how this is going to evolve for our community, but many of our local businesses could find it tough going over the next weeks and months. So when and where you can, please support local business.

Thanks for reading, Squamish, and thank you to all of the hard working folks in our Health Authority and at the District who are working hard to make sure life remains as safe and normal as possible for all of us.

Here are the links I would encourage you to monitor for information:
BC Centre for Disease Control – information about COVID-19 including prevention, symptoms, and what to do if you are sick: http://www.bccdc.ca/health-info/diseases-conditions/covid-19

Vancouver Coastal Health – this site includes situation updates and general information about COVID-19: http://www.vch.ca/…/vancouver-coastal-health-statement-on-c…

Healthlink BC: this website actually has information about COVID-19 translated into different languages: https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/he…/coronavirus-disease-covid-19

District of Squamish – we will be sharing the latest information for our community through our social media platforms, but also on this web page: https://squamish.ca/covid-19/