Interior Health is in the early stages of its investigation into COVID-19 cases at the Blue Grotto nightclub last Thursday (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

BLUE GROTTO COVID-19

Interior Health investigating capacity, potential vaccine card mix-up at Blue Grotto

Oct 22, 2021 | 4:00 PM

KAMLOOPS — Interior Health says it is working with a couple hypotheses in mind around what caused multiple COVID-19 cases at the Blue Grotto nightclub on the evening of Oct. 14.

Blue Grotto owner David “Pup” Johnston says the case count remains at 18 as of Friday (Oct. 22).

IH has found, so far, that the Blue Grotto has been proactive and has a lot of safety measures in place, but it’s being thorough in the investigation.

“We have requested whole genome sequencing to see how many of the cases have related to each other, if at all, to help us learn if this is one super spreader [event] that spread to all of these individuals or are we seeing a number of clusters. It’s really hard to know,” said Interior Health Medical Health Officer Dr. Carol Fenton.

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Interior Health has yet to confirm the vaccination status of the patrons at the Blue Grotto last Thursday, but says they may not have all been fully vaccinated.

“The owner of the Blue Grotto did tell us that they were checking for one vaccine only and not full vaccination for all of the attendees,” Dr. Fenton told CFJC Today.

Legally, non-essential establishments like restaurants, bars and nightclubs have only been required to check for partially-vaccinated status. That changes this Sunday (Oct. 24). Only when there are more than 50 people has a business needed to ensure full vaccination.

Interior Health is still looking into the exact numbers. Johnston has told CFJC Today he had 50 patrons in the building.

Also as part of its investigation, IH is tracking where people may have been throughout the night and even in the days after.

“We’re also gathering information about gatherings that may have occurred before the event or after, people that were carpooling, people that were perhaps smoking in the same vicinity with others that are not directly inside the event but associated with the event.”

Some in the community have questioned, with 18 cases around the event, as the Blue Grotto has reported, why hasn’t an outbreak been declared? Dr. Fenton says the health authority only has the lab results for five people.

“Primarily because on our side, we haven’t seen those numbers yet,” she said. “And so we’re investigating the possibility it’s an outbreak, but we need that evidence before we can declare one.”

Dr. Fenton says an outbreak will be declared if Interior Health determines a high risk of transmission beyond people at this event.