Patient Care Tower site, Nov. 3 (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

RIH TOWER OUTBREAK

‘People are frustrated and people are scared’: Construction worker calls for RIH Patient Care Tower site to be shut down

Nov 6, 2020 | 5:20 PM

KAMLOOPS — Mike showed up to the Patient Care Tower construction site on Friday (Nov. 6), but many of his co-workers did not when news broke that Interior Health had declared the site at Royal Inland Hospital a COVID-19 outbreak.

Mike, a Kamloops resident working on the project, spoke to CFJC Today on the condition of anonymity, as speaking out could impact his employment.

“The organization I work for, some of them chose not to come in,” he said. “Some of them wanted to get tested, some people wanted a couple days to see if they got sick. Other people are just pure stressed.”

Interior Health is reporting seven confirmed cases related to the outbreak. Mike is quite anxious about the whole situation. He interacted with the group of drywallers that tested positive for the virus.

IH has said contact tracing has been conducted, but no one has personally contacted Mike to instruct him on the next steps following exposure.

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“Nobody’s contacted anybody to tell us, ‘Are we allowed in the community? Are we supposed to be socially-isolating?’ There’s a real lack of transparency.”

While he says some contracting companies have been proactive and sent their employees to be tested, he contends the primary contractor, EllisDon, has given the site very little direction since the first positive cases came back. Mike believes the site should close.

“I think they should be shutting down if there’s a cluster of people. Shutting us down for a week or two just to see what happens, and then if things get back to normal, open it back up,” he said. “But this ‘open it, close it, open it’ is stressing people out. I’m stressed.”

Since re-opening on Tuesday, masks on site are mandatory. However, Mike notes some workers are not wearing protection and the mandate is not being enforced.

“There is a lack of social distancing going on. I try to tell people not to come near us and they just want to do their job. It’s a frustrating situation going on in there. People are frustrated and people are scared.”

Multiple calls to Ellis Don this week by CFJC Today have gone unreturned.