Right as a cluster of COVID-19 cases is being reported in Sun Peaks, Interior Health is ending testing in the resort community.

Instead, people who are symptomatic will need to isolate, and make their way to a testing centre in Kamloops.

Throughout the winter, a testing site at the Sun Peaks Health Centre was open on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. All winter, there were fewer than two dozen COVID-19 cases in the village, but with this latest cluster, there are have now been 25 cases in Sun Peaks since Saturday.

Interior Health Medical Health Officer, Dr. Carol Fenton, says the decision to close the local testing site was made because more resources were needed in Kamloops.

“So we’re at this really challenging point of the pandemic where all of our staff are all hands on deck and we’ve had to pull everyone possible from within IH as well as recruiting as much outside of IH for the vaccine effort,” she said on the NL Noon Report.

Dr. Fenton adds all of IHA’s baseline functions are operating at the bare minimum.

“So in order to you know reinstate testing for example at Sun Peaks we have to pull people from that effort,” Fenton said.

She adds it is an ongoing challenge to balance testing needs against the need to get as many vaccinations done as soon as possible. As it stands, there are no plans to move up a mobile vaccine clinic for all adults in Sun Peaks, which is currently scheduled from May 4 to 7.

Interior Health asks anyone from Sun Peaks who travels to Kamloops to get tested to self isolate, except for when they come to town, and to stay in self isolation until their test results come back, adding that they must isolate for at least 14 days if they test positive.

Only people who show symptoms of COVID-19 will be tested in Kamloops, according to IH. Fenton says transportation is available for people who need it to go to Kamloops for testing.