Afternoon Update for March 27th, 2020.

NANAIMO —A resident at a Campbell River retirement home has tested positive for COVID19. The Berwick by the Sea care home says the patient has been self-isolating since last Tuesday. Berwick's Director of Sales and Marketing says the infection was confirmed by Island Health the following day. Leslie Sikorski says a letter was then sent to residents, outlining the steps it is taking to prevent the spread of the virus.

In the letter, Berwick's director of operations writes: “While we understand that this may be distressing to hear, the good news is all of the precautions we have implemented will assist us to mitigate the spread further and protect both staff and resident’s safety." Kelly Lazaro says all residents remain quarantined in their suites for the next 14-days. A further deep clean of the building has started.

An “Isolation Team” has been established and is responsible for delivering food to the infected resident. These staff members cannot deliver meals or respond to calls for any other suites. Other staff will be delivering meals and activity to-go bags to each suite daily Lazaro says the situation is being taken seriously and has asked everyone to remain calm

Health officials in BC are confident they have enough ventilators and acute care beds to handle a COVID-19 crisis as bad as what Italy is experiencing. The Ministry of Health has released a set of charts that show how it would use hospitals and deploy equipment to manage outbreaks equivalent to what has been seen in Hubei China and northern Italy. The provincial health officer says in reality, BC cases remain far below the curve in those countries. Dr. Bonnie Henry says cases in BC will continue to increase in the coming days, but she expects the upward curve to flatten during the next two weeks. She says BC is currently far below the projected curve, compared to other countries and the rest of Canada.

Small and medium-sized businesses will get help to cope with layoffs and payments due, thanks to a series of measures, announced today by the Prime Minister. Justin Trudeau says Ottawa will cover 75 percent of worker wages, to allow businesses to keep workers on the payroll. A new Canada Emergency Business Account will allow businesses to apply for interest-free bank loans, that will be guaranteed by the federal government. And, businesses will be allowed to delay paying the government GST as well as duty and import taxes until June.

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Lisa Cordasco

Senior Reporter and News Director — Lisa is responsible for creating the station's first morning news current affairs show on CHLY. She is also deeply involved in training and mentoring student and citizen journalists who volunteer their time at the station. Before joining CHLY, Lisa spent 35 years in various roles at CBC Radio, from host to reporter. Her passion for journalism and radio has led her to Nanaimo, where she intends to provide CHLY listeners with news they can use, in an alternative radio environment. Her other not-so-secret passion is costuming for any occasion.

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