Interior Health is warning of a possible COVID-19 exposure in the early hours of September 7 at a private party at Hotel Zed at 1627 Abbott Street in Kelowna.
The health authority says the party is believed to have happened between midnight and 3:30 a.m. where a number of people were gathered in a common area and/or on a balcony at the hotel. Many of the party goers may not have been registered guests.
“We take this very seriously at Hotel Zed. Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our guests and our own team.,” a statement from the hotel said. “Our hotel security did break up this party on our deck. We also evicted the guests in question that night as they did not cooperate with our social distancing protocols.”
“Once the area was cleared, our team immediately sanitized the deck and all of the hotel’s public areas with our electrostatic spray machines. The rooms in question were also shut down and sanitized as per our strict COVID-19 cleaning protocols.”
Interior Health is asking people who were at this party to self-monitor closely for symptoms of COVID-19 and to get tested if they begin to exhibit symptoms. Contact tracing is underway and IHA will be reaching out to as many people as possible who might have been exposed to the virus.
“This potential exposure is a reminder of how important it is to keep gatherings small and to people you know as we head into the fall,” said a statement from Interior Health.
Anyone looking for a test should call their primary care provider or the closest Interior Health community testing and assessment centre.
This exposure event comes about two months after at least 173 cases of COVID-19 cases in Kelowna linked to parties over Canada Day, which was declared over on August 31.