As Point Roberts fights to open its border, COVID cases reportedly on rise in community
As Point Roberts continues to push for its border crossing to be opened to Canadian travelers, the community is seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases.
“There have been a number of new COVID cases here in our community over the last week,” Whatcom County Fire District 5 Chief Christopher Carleton wrote in a Monday, Aug. 2, letter sent to residents on official letterhead that was obtained by The Bellingham Herald. “All parties have been notified and provided guidance to help them through any isolation requirements. We also have extended assistance to help them with any needs they may have during this time.”
The Whatcom County Health Department would not confirm if there has been an outbreak of cases in Point Roberts.
“Generally we do not share specifics about disease clusters or industry- or employer-specific data,” health department spokesperson Scarlet Tang told The Herald in an email. “We need to ensure that industries, employers, employees, and groups are willing to cooperate with us during disease investigations; releasing this information can hinder the trust and cooperation needed for investigations to be effective. Maintaining trust is essential to our work.
“When we’ve discussed specific outbreaks in the past, it was in cooperation with those businesses and in compliance with HIPAA considerations.”
The health department does release weekly regional data within Whatcom County, using the county’s seven school districts as geographical boundaries.
Point Roberts is included in the region covered by the Blaine School District, and as of the health department’s report Aug. 3, that region had the highest COVID infection rate within Whatcom County, with 191 cases per 100,000 residents seen over the past two weeks. The region saw 25 new COVID cases last week, the health department’s data showed.
In addition to Carleton’s letter, the Point Roberts Marina emailed a status report to community members on Thursday, Aug. 5, that The Herald has obtained. It said that two employees have tested positive for COVID-19 “despite all in-office employees are fully vaccinated.” The two positive employees have been quarantined at home, and the remaining marina employees have tested negative, according to the report, and the marina office is not open for in-person visits into next week and is being thoroughly sanitized and ventilated.
The news comes as U.S. Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene penned a letter Tuesday, Aug. 3, urging U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas to grant an exemption that would permit Canadian travelers to enter Point Roberts.
The border between the U.S. and Canada has been closed to non-essential travel since March of 2020, as both countries attempted to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Initially set to last 30 days, the border closure has since been extended a month at a time.
While many communities and businesses on both sides of the border have felt the impacts from the extended closure, the 1,100 permanent residents and 4,000 part-time residents of Point Roberts exclave have been hit particularly hard, according to the lawmakers.
“Cross-border commerce is the lifeblood of this community and after more than sixteen months, many businesses are on the brink of shutting their doors for good,” the lawmakers wrote.
Carleton has also previously reported that he has helped vaccinate nearly 85% of Point Roberts’ full-time residents.
