Interior Health Medical Health Officer says she and her collegues aren't so worried about COVID being spread by local restaurants and businesses.
"Our businesses and public places have prevention measures in place. They have the distancing, they have the plexi-glass, they have the masking policies," Dr. Carol Fenton stated. "Our main risk, again, are these private gatherings. We are seeing a surge of cases following Thanksgiving, we saw another surge following Halloween. We are hoping not to see another surge in November heading into the holiday season."
Fenton wants to remind people that bubbles need to be kept small and the people in your bubble shouldn't change.
She added there's more concern than just the virus.
"A lot of people are feeling really isolated. It's really hard to keep our bubble really small. I'm experiencing it, because I just moved to Kamloops in the spring. With everyone keeping their bubble small making friends has been a challenge. I worry and we are seeing increases in overdose and we know that people are consuming for alcohol, so that's a really big concern for me."
Fenton encourages people to reach out to friends and neighbours in a safe way if they need support, but avoid social gatherings.
"We are heading in the wrong direction. If we want to have holiday gatherings or anything the resembles a semblance of a normal Christmas or other holidays, we need to turn that around now."
Fenton says what we do now impacts the weeks and months to come.