VANCOUVER -- Campgrounds and RV parks on Vancouver Island must collect information on each of their patrons and keep it for 30 days, according to a public health order issued late last week.
Island Health's chief medical officer Dr. Richard Stanwick issued the order on Friday. It requires the owners and operators of such facilities to collect information, including names and phone numbers, in order to enable COVID-19 contact tracing.
“We need to do everything we can to slow the transmission of COVID-19 and we know effective contact tracing plays a significant role,” said Stanwick in a news release announcing the order. “I appreciate the support of Tourism Vancouver Island in our collective efforts to help protect our families, friends and those who may be most at risk of contracting the COVID-19 virus during the winter months.”
The order mirrors a similar requirement that exists at the provincial level for restaurants and bars. Those establishments must collect a phone number or email address for at least one party member when taking names for wait-lists or reservations.
The new rules for campgrounds and RV parks on Vancouver Island are intended to help contact tracers identify potential sources of COVID-19 related to travel, especially from the Lower Mainland, where most of B.C.'s cases of the coronavirus have been located.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has strongly recommended against non-essential travel by residents living in the Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health regions. Last weekend, she issued several new public health orders for those health authorities in an effort to slow a surge in cases there.
Municipalities on Vancouver Island's West Coast have also asked travellers from those regions to reschedule any reservations they may have had between last weekend and Nov. 23, when Henry's orders for Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health are scheduled to be lifted.
