Coronavirus: B.C. doctor asking businesses to help limit spread of COVID-19

A B.C. physician is calling for all businesses in the province to help limit the spread of the novel coronavirus by eliminating person-to-person transactions.

In an interview with Global News on Thursday, Dr. Dr. Alex van Duyvendyk said she started a petition calling on “businesses within our community to take appropriate and necessary measures due to COVID-19.”

The Kelowna physician said more than 400 people have signed the petition.

The petition can be found here.

The petition says:

“Please, we beg you, join us in battling this disease. The recently declared state of health emergency in B.C. has resulted in the obligatory closure of high-risk businesses (gyms, fitness centres, casinos, and bingo halls) and suggested strategies to mitigate spread at others.

“While we support these measures, we call on the B.C. business community to go even further and proactively close or transform their businesses in a way that eliminates person-to-person interaction.

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“This will be a painful but necessary way to prevent community transmission of COVID-19.

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“The downstream impact of early action by our business community will save lives and give our healthcare system a fighting chance. We would not ask this of you if we thought there was any other way.”

1:12 Economic impact of the federal COVID-19 aid package

Van Duyvendyk said the petition began after seeing physicians in Saskatchewan band together to battle COVID-19.

“Coming from a family business myself in Saskatchewan, I absolutely understand the financial ramifications to this,” said van Duyvendyk.

“The fact of the matter is that we have to save lives, and we’re about a week behind with reported numbers because we’re waiting on test results.”

She added Canada has been given a gift from other countries in what to look out for regarding COVID-19, “and I think we really need to do absolutely everything we can to minimize the risk and save our community.”

2:29 B.C. public safety minister declares provincial state of emergency

Specifically, van Duyvendyk said the petition is a call for B.C. businesses to close any unnecessary or non-essential services.

She said businesses representative under that definition could include car dealerships, nail salons and liquor stores.

“These are so unnecessary right now, especially when my colleagues and I are on the front line, dealing with very sick people and facing and trying to prepare for peaks and large increases in exponential numbers.”