In 10 days, Prince George will begin hosting the World Women's Curling Championship.
The fact that four of the teams coming to the city for the nine-day tournament represent countries where the novel coronavirus is most prevalent in the world has raised concerns about how safe it will be for local residents to come into contact with those teams.
China, Japan, South Korea and Italy are countries where a higher incidence of the virus has been reported and all have women's teams that have qualified for the world championship. The B. C. government on Tuesday asked travelers from China and Iran to self-isolate for 14 days upon arriving in Canada. That isolation period is not mandatory and organizers of the nine-day World Women's Championship are not concerned it will have an affect on any of the 13 teams coming to the city.
"We're working with Northern Health to alleviate any concerns and do what we have to do to prevent the coronavirus if it ever does get to Prince George," said Terry Morris, event manager for Curling Canada.
"Team China hasn't been in China for over six months. They've been training in Europe, Scotland and Switzerland, and now they're in Canada. The Italian team is in a secure training facility, secure from the outside world. That's all I know."
In the event a team doesn't show up, Morris said there would be a bye in the schedule for that spot and each of remaining teams would play one fewer game in the round-robin tournament for each team that can't get to Prince George.
"It's not going to happen, though," said Morris.
Morris deferred any other comments on the potential threat the virus poses to the tournament to the World Curling Federation, which is based in Glasgow, Scotland. In an email to the Citizen, Cameron MacAllister, the WCF's head of media, said the organization is closely monitoring the spread of the virus and its potential impact on upcoming international curling events. Kelowna will host the World Mixed Doubles Championship April 18-25 and Glasgow has the World Men's Championship March 28-April 5 and MacAllister said those events will go ahead as planned.
"However," he said, "it is the World Curling Federation's priority to ensure the safety and well-being of its athletes, officials and those involved with the delivery of its events at all times. Also, to uphold a fair playing field for its member associations.
"The WCF is in regular communication with its host committees, and through them national and local health authorities; its member associations, specifically those with delegations traveling from the affected countries; and the World Health Organization. The federation is reviewing the advice from these parties on a daily basis and it will take appropriate action based on the advice of experts if circumstances should change. Therefore, this position may be subject to change at short notice."
The WCF is working with local health authorities at each championship event to develop an action plan to mitigate the risk of spreading the virus and will provide plenty of facilities to encourage hand-washing and sanitizing with alcohol-based products to maintain a high level of cleanliness at each competition venue.
Three more cases of COVID-19 were confirmed Tuesday in B.C., bringing the provincial total to 12. Two of the new cases, a man in his 60s and a woman of unconfirmed age, had traveled to Iran recently. The other new case, and man in his 30s, was living in the same household as woman in her 60s who returned from Iran who was the eighth case reported in B.C. All are in the Vancouver Coastal Health region and are monitoring themselves in self-isolation. The risk of the virus spreading in B.C. is considered low.
In a joint statement issued Tuesday, Health Minister Adrian Dix and Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.'s provincial health officer, said organizers of large events should take specific precautions:
“Gathering large numbers of people together can increase the risk of transmission. Event organizers should ask all participants to stay away if they are sick, returning from affected areas or have underlying health conditions that may be impacted by respiratory illness. Organizers should also complete a risk assessment considering what is happening in the local community and who may attend the event. Local public health teams can assist with this assessment."
So far the COVID-19 virus has been reported in 70 countries or territories with more than 90,000 global cases and 3,100 deaths attributed to the virus, most of which were in mainland China.
Northern Health and its emergency management north office has been in contact with organizers of the world curling tournament and is directing them to follow the protocols highlighted by the BC Centre for Disease Control. It offers information on its COVID-19 web pages about the virus and its symptoms, how it is spread, how to protect yourself from infection and self-isolation procedures.
"The advice from the BCCDC in that regard is really to follow the same advice that public health officials recommend for cold and flu season," said Northern Health spokesperson Eryn Collins. "And that's washing your hands, covering your mouth and nose when you're coughing or sneezing, avoiding others who are unwell and staying home if you yourself are sick.
"That's the provincial advice that's being offered. We're really not the lead agency for speaking specifically to coronavirus preparations because there's not really anything uniquely northern about those guidelines."
Collins said travelers concerned about the virus can read up on travel advisories issued by the federal government at travel.gc.ca and also referred to the provincial information on the BCCDC website at bccdc.ca.
If the threat of the virus is scaring away any curling fans, Morris is unaware of it. He said ticket sales for the CN Centre event so far are on par with last year's World Men's Curling Championship hosted in Lethbridge.
"You always worry about your ticket sales but we have 500 RSVPs to the banquet and people are still buying tickets," he said. "Typically, this event looks at a lot of walk-ups.
"It's a strong field, some of the top teams in the world. It should be a good event."
