With COVID reports from Prince Rupert, Lax Kw'alaams goes back into Lockdown

The Lax Kwa'aams Band Council has once again put the community under a Lockdown notice, issuing the latest advisory over the weekend, with the new measures in effect as of last evening at  5PM.

In their notice to community members the Band Council notes of the recent accounts of COVID reports in Prince Rupert as the determining factor in the decision of the Emergency Management Centre.

Among the key elements of the Notice are:

Effective Sunday, January 17th at 5:00 pm, residents leaving the community will not be allowed re-entry unless: 

A) They are residents authorized to do so for EMERGENCY patient travel as authorized by the Health Centre Nurses. These patients must isolate for 10 days upon their return. 

B) They are authorized to leave the community by the Assistant to the CAO for compassionate reasons (funerals, attending to those in critical care).

Non-residents currently in the community do not have to leave; but when they do leave, they cannot enter the community 

Travel to Lax Kw’alaams is restricted to Lax Kw’alaams residents only. 

Contractors who enter the community will be assessed on an individual basis. Priority will be given to essential services or the various projects currently underway that influence community infrastructure and safety. These contracts will have no contact with community members. 

Retail grocers must not go back and forth. As before, please put your vehicle on the ferry, get it picked up at Aero Point by another individual, and get your vehicle returned unattended.  

We will not be ordering groceries for the community. We encourage you to shop on-line or by phone in Prince Rupert, and get your groceries delivered to the ferry. Our flat deck will be on the ferry Monday, Wednesday and Friday’s in the morning and will remain at Aero Point until the afternoon sailing. We will deliver groceries to the Rec Centre on your behalf. 

The ferry will continue to run on its regular schedule in order to allow the continued supply of groceries and materials to the community.

The Band Council also has advised that the Tuck Inlet road will only be open for one hour before and closed one hour after each sailing of the Ferry, that in order to guard against any unauthorized boat traffic from Prince Rupert to Lax Kw'alaams.

You can review the full statement here.

Updates to the advisory can be found as they are delivered to the Band's Facebook page.

For more notes from Lax Kw'alaams see our archive page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.