Williams Lake launches dedicated phone line for coronavirus inquiries

It was the first day of operations for emergency operation centers in Williams Lake and Quesnel.

Both cities activated their EOCs on Tuesday in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Day one has gone very well,” said Corporate Engagement Officer for the City of Williams Lake, Guillermo Angel. “Day one is mainly about the initial setup and making sure that we have all of our procedures in place, but it’s been very successful and we look forward to continuing the operation to serve the City as time goes on.”

The City of Williams Lake’s Emergency Operations Centre, that is located at the Fire Hall, has set up a dedicated phone line for local COVID-19 related inquiries.

The phone line will assist with operational and non-medical related questions and will provide direction toward available resources.

“There’s so much information out there that people might be overwhelmed. They might think I can get information from the federal government, provincial government, from the CDC, our local health authorities, so rather than having people look in a lot of places we can provide more of a guide,” Angel said.

“We’re not saying that we have all of the information but we just want to provide a guide, and also if we are able to answer a call here locally at a phone line that we’ve set up at our EOC it may take off some of the burden for those provincial phone lines, the health authority phone lines so that other people can have their questions answered as well.”