COVID-19 outbreak at fast food restaurant a warning against complacency, says Dr. Bonnie Henry

B.C. health officials say a fast food restaurant is the site of one of the province's latest COVID-19 outbreaks, where at least five people were infected with the virus in recent days.

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry is warning workers to be careful with customers and each other as the B.C. economy continues to reopen.

She did not name the fast food restaurant involved in the recent cases but did confirm the virus spread among workers.

"We can't become complacent with our work mates," said Henry, who pointed out "there was transmission between four or five of the staff in that facility."

Henry explained a person in the workplace who was infected may not have known.

"The situation is similar to what we've seen in other places where somebody doesn't recognize that they have symptoms, milder symptoms, and they may not have the appropriate spacing or barriers in place in the workplace."

A public health team of inspectors and environmental health officers went to the restaurant and completed a full review of the infection control precautions that need to be in place during the coronavirus pandemic, according to Henry.

"Contact tracing is our bread and butter in public health around communicable disease outbreaks. And so we were able to determine exactly who had contact with who and who had protected contact with others. So the assessment was done of risk of customers to the people in the environment and it was felt that there was not a risk."

She says she isn't aware of any customers who were exposed and says people who may have been exposed were notified.