Whistler RCMP hand out 5 COVID-19 fines, ticket driver for violating Quarantine Act

COVID-19 spreading rapidly in Whistler The number of COVID-19 cases in Whistler is continuing to grow at an alarming rate, with 547 cases now confirmed in the resort community.

Vancouver — As Whistler struggles with a rapid surge in COVID-19 cases, local police have been busy with COVID-19-related calls.

Whistler RCMP say they received 11 calls for service related to provincial health orders between Jan. 26 and Feb. 2, seven of which came in over the weekend.

Police say they issued five tickets for violations of public health orders last weekend. They also stopped a vehicle for speeding shortly after midnight on Jan. 30 and determined that the driver was violating the federal Quarantine Act.

The driver had been in the country for nine days, and therefore should have been self-isolating, police said in a news release, adding that they wrote the driver a $1,150 ticket for the violation.

The incidents came during a week that saw the resort municipality record 259 cases of COVID-19, nearly doubling Whistler's total for 2021.

According to Vancouver Coastal Health, Whistler confirmed 547 cases of COVID-19 from Jan. 1 to Feb. 2. That's more than double the 271 cases recorded in the municipality throughout all of 2020.

Most of the people to contract COVID-19 in Whistler in recent weeks are people in their 20s and 30s who live, work and socialize together, according to B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix, who said Friday that there have only been two hospitalizations associated with the Whistler cluster so far.

The health authority says most of the cases in Whistler have been contracted within households and in social settings, and there has been "very little transmission" in outdoor recreation areas, such as Whistler Blackcomb.