COVID-19 outbreak on B.C.’s Haida Gwaii declared over

The COVID-19 outbreak on Haida Gwaii has been declared over, Northern Health confirmed Friday.

Twenty-six cases of COVID-19 had been linked to the outbreak; none of the patients required hospitalization or relocation.

No new cases have been reported since Aug. 6. There have also been no active cases since that date, and health experts said they are confident there are no further chains of transmission.

1:48 Haida Gwaii fishing lodges unhappy with closures

The province allowed tourism operators on Haida Gwaii to reopen under Phase 3 of B.C.’s pandemic recovery plan in late June, only to close them again just weeks later after an outbreak was declared.

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Lodges and tourism operators who had clients booked for the summer were forced to close and issue refunds.

The Haida Nation has said it has particular concerns about the virus because of limited medical resources on the islands, vulnerable elders who carry cultural and historical knowledge, and historical trauma from prior epidemics.

— With files from Simon Little