B.C.’s top doctor says the COVID-19 outbreak at Royal Inland Hospital is a a wake-up call for people in the Kamloops area.

Speaking during her briefing on Monday, Dr. Bonnie Henry asked people to recommit to following the protocols meant to keep people safe.

“We know that this part of Interior Health has not had an large outbreak in their healthcare facility, but yes, they have been accessing resources from Interior Health and from the Lower Mainland,” she said. “We have a support process both for public health and for infection control to support staff in the area as well.”

As for releasing information about outbreaks, Henry says health officials are focused on making sure the people most affected are notified first.

“The overriding focus has been on providing the information to those who need it in the facility, the patients and their families, and the staff in the facility. That has been and will continue to be the overriding issue people are paying attention to. And yes, the outbreak did grow. We’ve seen this with many outbreaks.”

Concerns were raised by several people including Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Peter Milobar after Interior Health did not release any information about the outbreak over the weekend. There were eight cases on Friday, and 48 (including one death) by Monday’s update.

Kamloops Medical Health Officer Dr. Carol Fenton says she knows people are anxious but told NL News health officials are doing their best to limit the spread of the virus in the hospital.

“We have limited staff on the weekends and we need to make sure that any information that we release is the most correct,” Fenton said on NL Newsday. “We need to focus our priority on completing the investigation and keeping everyone as safe as we can and then when we have capacity we community it the best to our ability.”

Like Dr. Henry, Dr. Fenton too is asking people to keep following the public health measures that have been put in place.