UPDATE
Interior Health said there are 75 total workers involved in the COVID-19 outbreak at Bylands Nurseries in West Kelowna– 63 migrant workers and 12 local workers.
All are self-isolating.
At this time, Interior Health has 14 positive COVID-19 test results.
Some additional results are pending.
The medical health officer order in this case applies to Bylands Nurseries Ltd. only, not the Bylands Garden Centre, which is a separate business.
However, the owner of the Bylands Garden Centre has also elected to close voluntarily.
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Original story
Interior Health is investigating an outbreak of COVID-19 illness involving a group of temporary foreign workers residing in housing at a West Kelowna agricultural business.
On March 27, an IH Medical Health Officer placed an order on Bylands Nurseries Ltd. A group of temporary foreign workers residing in on site housing are to remain in quarantine on the property until the Medical Health Officer provides alternate direction.
This followed confirmation of COVID-19 cases among this group.
The MHO is confident that the risk of exposure to the general public is low. None of the workers were in roles that interact with customers and members of this group had very minimal contact in the community.
The business is currently closed to customers.
The workers live on the site in good housing accommodations, which provide space for individuals to be self-isolated safely. Bylands Nurseries Ltd has been fully cooperative with IH through this process.
The cases may be linked to a group of workers who arrived in Kelowna from outside of Canada on March 12.
Under order of the MHO, Bylands Nurseries and Garden Centre has undertaken several measures including enhanced cleaning of all nursery, housing, sanitary and other facilities accessed by employees as well as denying access to all visitors to the site.
The BCCDC website is the recommended resource for accurate, current COVID-19 information for British Columbians. The site is being updated frequently and individuals are encouraged to check back often.
