Vaccination campaigns are ramping up throughout the Tri-Cities but COVID-19 continues to circulate, with two grocery stores and a drug store in Coquitlam reporting recent COVID-19 exposures.
Loblaw Companies Ltd. has reported exposures at the following locations in recent days:
- Coquitlam Your Independent Grocer, 455 North Rd., Coquitlam
- The last day the team member worked was on Thursday, May 6.
- Real Canadian Superstore, 3000 Lougheed Hwy, Coquitlam
- The last day the team member worked was on Saturday, May 1.
- Shoppers Drug Mart, 3025 Lougheed Hwy, Coquitlam
- The last day the team member worked was on Sunday, May 2.
Loblaw Companies Ltd, is the parent company of Real Canadian Superstore, No Frills, Shoppers Drug Mart, Wholesale Club, and Your Independent Grocer and regularly updates its COVID-19 employee case tracker.
Fraser Health has not considered the stores a coronavirus public exposure location and none have been shut down by the health authority or WorkSafeBC.
Last week, Fraser Health announced it would be prioritizing grocery store workers for vaccines.
The health authority, the largest in the province, said all adult grocery store staff are now eligible to receive either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine.
The exposures at stores come as cases are dipping in the Tri-Cities.
The BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) reported 277 lab-confirmed infections in the Tri-Cities between April 25 and May 1, a decrease of 18% compared to the previous week.
Between April 18 and 24, there were 341 cases across Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody.
The region peaked at 514 cases — the second most in the province after Surrey — two weeks earlier.
- with files from Stefan Labbé, Glacier Media
