Local stores, offices and industry feeling impact of illness related shortages, closures

The doors are closed for the rest of the week at
Prince Rupert's Entire Auto, after a number of staff illnesses

BC Ferries is not the only organization suffering from a staffing shortage at the moment, reports from around town of office vacancies and store short staffing situations are starting to become a daily commentary, with a local tire shop the latest to put out the Closed sign owing to a lack of staff.

Dwayne MacNeil of Entire on Third Avenue East provided the advisory for his faithful customers this morning, shutting down his operations for the rest of the week.

Customers can follow the Tire shop's  social media page for updates.

The tire shop closing its doors at what is a very busy tire changeover season highlights some of the challenges facing business owners these days as they navigate the post COVID period and the more relaxed regulations. 

Though it's worth noting that in recent days many locations in town have shifted back to some earlier precautions such as mask wearing.

The province of British Columbia changed the reporting process for COVID a few weeks ago, and gone are the daily updates, with the new focus on a week to week review, issued on Thursdays.

The BC CDC Data release on COVID for April 10 to 16
The Province of BC now only reports on COVID themes every Thursday

Last week the totals for Prince Rupert had been listed at just five recorded cases, while Terrace continues to be atop the listings of the Northwest with 11 cases recorded as of April 16.

The COVID 19 Dashboard for last week indicated that across the entire Northern Health region, 21 patients were in hospital, 4 of them in critical care, with three passings recorded in the reporting period ending April 21st.  

The Dashboard does not provide a breakdown as to how those numbers are spread out across the vast expanse of the Northern Health region.

BC CDC COVID dashboard update from April 21 for Northern Health Region

With new guidelines towards COVID awareness from the province, many more residents of the region may be taking time off work as a precaution, should they believe that they have symptoms of the coronavirus.

Considering the news of this week, the data review to be delivered on Thursday may provide an interesting overview towards the current situation on the North Coast.

Past updates on the provincial and regional updates on COVID can be reviewed here.

More notes on the city's commercial sector can be explored here.