COVID-19 test site up and running at Sun Peaks
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SUN PEAKS, BC — COVID-19 was first confirmed in Sun Peaks very shortly after the pandemic was declared in British Columbia. Since then, there have been several more cases reported amongst employees who travelled home from working at the resort. Those cases are part of the reason the Sun Peaks Health Centre and the municipality advocated for a COVID-19 testing site in the community.
Thanks to a collaborative effort that includes Interior Health and the Thompson Division of Family Practice, that wish was granted and there is now testing up at Sun Peaks.
Dr. Shane Barclay was first in line at the Sun Peaks COVID-19 testing centre on Wednesday morning (Dec. 9). The test site is located at the newly opened Sun Peaks Centre, right beside the skating rink.
“The concern was even though we’re not having international travellers, we already have guests here from Alberta, Quebec, Ontario that here to ski and work,” Dr. Barclay explains. “I thought it would be really important that if we had to quell an outbreak, testing is a big part of that.”
Dr. Barclay advocated for a testing site in the community since the early days of the pandemic in B.C. A testing site in Sun Peaks was important because of the folks who come to work in and visit the community during the winter season.
“Most of [the seasonal workers] don’t have vehicles. To spend the $150 to take a taxi to go get a COVID test in Kamloops — just not an option. They’re not going to go, is my concern,” Dr. Barclay says. “Same for the visitors that are here — the ski teams. They don’t have transportation down to Kamloops. It just made so much sense to get testing in the community.”
The test site is a collaboration between Interior Health, the Thompson Division of Family Practice, Sun Peaks Resort Municipality and the Sun Peaks Health Centre. Once the site was approved, it took about seven days to get up and running, with Dr. Barclay and Sun Peaks Community Health Centre Executive Director Laura Bantock spearheading the effort.
“I did have a short discussion with Dr. Fenton at the hospital board meeting, and I think that also helped,” Sun Peaks Mayor Al Raine says. “I truly, truly appreciate how quickly it came together and the cooperation from all the agencies.”
With the testing site in place and a vaccine on the horizon, Raine is optimistic for the future. However, he’s aware this year could be difficult for his community.
“Directly, here in our community [the resort and its visitors are] a $107 million industry,” Raine says. “How big are the impacts? I think in the $25-to-$30 million [range].”
Dr. Barclay recognized that potential impact early on. So while his focus is on keeping COVID from spreading throughout Sun Peaks, he doesn’t want to see the resort shut down.
“The ski resorts in a lot of European counties are not open, because they realized last winter that ski resorts were a disaster in spreading [COVID-19] internationally,” Dr. Barclay explains. “My hope is to do two things: the first is to keep people healthy, but the other hope is to keep the hill open for skiing.”
The site is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10:00 am until 12:00 pm. Patients can book tests through Interior Health.
