Dear Visitors,
The Government of BC’s announced on Friday, April 23rd travel restrictions.
Under the Emergency Protection Act, there is an order restricting non-essential travel between certain regions of the province in place until May 25 at midnight.
This includes travel for:
- Vacations, weekend getaways and tourism activities;
- Visiting family or friends for social reasons; and
- Recreation activities.
The order combines BC’s five health authorities into three regions of the province. Travel into and out of the regions for non-essential reasons is not allowed and is now prohibited by law.
The regions are:
- Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley (Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health);
- Northern/Interior (Northern Health and Interior Health, including Bella Coola Valley, the Central Coast and Hope); and
- Vancouver Island (Vancouver Island Health)
Given this new order, Mount St. Mary Hospital will not permit entry to social visitors from outside our Vancouver Island Health region.
Furthermore, it is recommended by our public health officials that individuals do not go on long trips within their region. It is requested that we all stay close to home and in our local area. As such, we encourage you to postpone your visit to a Mount St. Mary resident IF it takes you longer than two (2) hours to travel to the facility.
Those visiting Mount St. Mary Hospital residents as an approved Essential Visitor are permitted to travel from out of their region to Vancouver Island.
As always, we follow our values of compassion and caring, fairness and justice, and responsibility and accountability when we make decisions.
Your attention to these new restrictions is greatly appreciated. We know it is disappointing for those who live out of town, but we also know you want to keep your loved one, the staff, and each other safe and healthy.
We will provide you with updates as they occur.
Yours truly,
Sara