The City of Kelowna is following the lead of other B.C. municipalities and making masks mandatory at all indoor city-operated facilities as COVID-19 case counts surge.
Effective Monday, non-medical masks or face coverings will be required at City Hall, all recreation facilities and arenas, the yards office and the Glenmore Landfill administration building.
Disposable masks will be made available for people who don’t have their own, the city said in a news release Monday.
The city said the goal is “voluntary compliance” as the majority of people respect the mask-wearing protocols elsewhere.
If people can’t wear a mask for medical reasons, they are encouraged to access services online or over the phone.
The main exception to the policy is children under 13, the city said.
“We have seen a surge in cases across Canada, in British Columbia, and in the Central Okanagan,” Mayor Colin Basran said.
“After reaching a low of 152 active COVID cases in B.C. at the end of June, we are now up beyond 2,300 active cases and the numbers are increasing daily.”
Mask use in the terminal at Kelowna International Airport remains in effect.
Last week, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry toughened her stance on wearing masks to try to stop community transmission of the coronavirus.
She said it’s now an “expectation” that people will wear non-medical masks in public.
The city said staff will also wear masks when interacting with the public, both indoors and outside.
Staff and attending members of the public will have to wear a mask when in council chambers, except when presenting.
The City of Richmond and the City of Merritt have also required masks to be worn in all civic buildings.
In October, Vancouver city council rejected a similar measure, opting instead for a gentler policy of “encouraging” masks in municipal indoor spaces.
B.C. reported 2,390 active cases of COVID-19 on Friday, while 6,003 people were in isolation — both record highs.
Seventy-eight people were in hospital — 25 of them in critical or intensive care.
An update on the case counts in B.C. is expected on Monday afternoon.
Henry also granted new powers to regional medical health officers to issue stricter public health orders for their jurisdictions.
The new powers came in the same provincial health order banning more than six visitors from residential homes announced last week.
“(Regional medical health officers’ orders) may add further prohibitions, or impose more restrictive limitations or conditions, with respect to gatherings and events in the geographic area of the province, or a part of the geographic area of the province, for which the medical health officer is designated,” states the new order, posted Friday afternoon.
While the Okanagan is faring better than the Lower Mainland, the region saw a noticeable spike in reported COVID-19 cases in the second half of October, at 90 cases.
The new cases pushed the Okanagan’s total number of cases since Jan. 1 to 477.
The 90 cases represent 18.8 per cent of the region’s total case count.
To reduce crowds, the city encouraged the public to do municipal business at kelowna.ca.
Its COVID-19 safety protocols can be reviewed online at kelowna.ca/COVID19.
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