The chair of the Cariboo Regional District says the Canim Lake Band is doing a great job of responding to an outbreak of COVID-19.

Margo Wagner is the director of neighbouring Canim Lake; she says the regional district was informed by Canim Lake Band chief Helen Henderson on Sunday about the outbreak growing to 32 cases.

Since transmission first was reported last week on the First Nation, it has been locked down, with visitors unable to enter and local curfew. Those measures will be in place until further notice.

“They’ve done an exemplary job,” Wagner says. “This whole thing from the get go, for a year now that this has been foremost, it’s been tough on them. They haven’t been able to do their big elder gatherings that they normally do, and their outings that they normally do. So this is just one more thing. And I know she [chief Henderson] is really concerned about the mental health aspect of all of this.”

Wagner says local non-First-Nations residents at Canim Lake are concerned that an outbreak has hit so close to home, saying residents on and off reserve share a lot of the same community resources.

“I was fielding some calls because the barricades were already up, preventing access into the main First Nation’s living areas; there’s several roads off of Canim-Hendrix that go into the reserve.”

She says residents in her area are fortunate to live “kind of a ways out,” but points out the small communities east of 100 Mile House are not immune to COVID-19.

“I think we’ve all realized that the potential for this to come down the pipeline was really high. When you see how it has spread in the Lower Mainland and has gradually been creeping up into the Interior, I think this has been expected by a lot of people.

“And we’re strong, resilient people, we’ve gone through a lot in the Cariboo.”

Interior Health has warned about increasing transmission of COVID-19 throughout the southern Cariboo.