Alert Bay Mayor Dennis Buchanan had been following reports of the spread of COVID-19 around the globe, then just over two weeks ago contracted the potentially deadly virus himself.
“I just thought wow, you do everything right and you still get it,” Buchanan said. “I had a massive headache like you would not believe, and I progressively got worse, I had a lot of nausea, I had a fever and I had difficulty trying to even swallow water.”
He says news of the positive test was difficult to hear.
“Because you hear of everybody passing away from it and I do have some compromised lung issues to begin with,” Buchanan added. “My children were upset, so was my wife so it was difficult.”
Alert Bay is a small community of about 500 people on Cormorant Island also home to the Namgis First Nation. About 1200 people live on the island and you need to take a ferry to get there.
Buchanan doesn’t know how he got the virus but says he was following all the safety protocols. He says someone brought it to the island, which is why he posted a video online asking people to just stay home.
“We have been telling people, do not travel, stay home. Well, folks, it is here,” Buchanan said in the video posted on Facebook.
“I thought well people might as well know that it’s here because people are still travelling back and forth,” he said. “People here are still holding house parties. They just don’t seem to get it that people need to stay home to stop the spread of this virus.”
Buchanan says there are now other confirmed cases on the island as well.
Dean Stoltz
