Passengers on a ferry heading to Haida Gwaii Islands (Queen Charlotte Islands, BC Canada) are expecting an unwelcome reception as the community gears up to turn away BC Ferries passengers who don't live on the island full-time.
A release from the emergency operations centre of the community said on Monday that Haida Gwaii's communities were no longer welcoming or serving tourists and people who were not full-time Haida Gwaii residents. The restrictions are immediately effective and will remain in place until the COVID pandemic is over, including a 2nd wave.
Visitors will be asked to immediately return to the ferryboat and wait for the next one as Haida Gwaii Health Services could not accommodate extra residents.
BC Ferries said it could only discourage potential customers from non-essential travel, but could not restrict travellers. In March, the island of Haida-Gwaii announced it was self-isolating due to the global pandemic. The council then cut off travel for non-residents to Haida Gwaii indefinitely and also advised against leisure travellers.
On Saturday, April 26, Canada's BC province (British Columbia) announced the first COVID-19-related death. For Coronavirus updates on cruise ship quarantines (infected passengers and crew) and top-pandemic countries (COVID-19 cases and deaths, daily updated statistics) see at CruiseMapper's Norovirus page.