WHISTLER AT CENTRE OF ONE OF THE LARGEST OUTBREAKS OF BRAZIL VARIANT OUTSIDE OF S. AMERICA.

Resort at centre of outbreak of Brazilian strain

Were it a normal year, hordes of skiers and snowboarders, filmmakers and other visitors would now be descending on Whistler, B.C. for the World Ski and Snowboard Festival, an international extravaganza of mountain culture, music and partying.

This year, however, the festival is being held virtually from April 16-23, and the mountain resort two hours north of Vancouver is getting international headlines for another reason. Whistler is at the centre of one of the largest outbreaks of the P1 Brazilian COVID variant in the country, if not the world — outside of South America.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control tracks the P1 Brazilian variant in 52 locations in the world, but the vast majority of cases are in South and North America. The U.S. had an estimated 500 cases as of April 11.

British Columbia accounts for the majority of P1 Brazilian variant cases in Canada, and Whistler, as of early April, accounted for roughly one-quarter of all the cases in the province.

The intensity of the Whistler outbreak led to a shut down of the main ski resort at the end of March, and as of this week, all adults in Whistler became eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations in an effort to halt the outbreak.

Data from the Public Health Agency of Canada shows that British Columbia has had roughly 1,500 of the 1,700 cases of the Brazil variant confirmed so far across the country. More than 1,000 of the 1,500 Brazil variant cases in B.C. are in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, which includes Whistler and Vancouver.

On April 6, Dr. Bonnie Henry, the province's health officer, said 200 of the then-877 P1 cases in the province were in the Whistler area. The vast majority of cases — 83 per cent according to Vancouver Coastal Health — were among those between the ages of 20 and 39.

The resort area was already seeing record numbers of cases of COVID-19, with 1,500 cases, not exclusively the variants, between January and April. But the P1 Brazilian variant is especially concerning because it contains a mutation that makes it both highly contagious and more resistant to the antibodies produced from vaccines and previous coronavirus infections. Early research suggests the Brazilian COVID-19 variant has the potential to reinfect people who have had COVID-19.

Sarah Otto, a professor at the University of B.C.'s department of zoology, told the Vancouver Sun that P.1 causes a 10 to 80 per cent increase in mortality.

Comparisons are being drawn between Whistler and another famous ski resort, Ischgl, in Austria. At least 28 who visited the Tyrolean resort late February and March of last year died of COVID. It has been blamed as ground zero for the first wave of the virus that swept Europe.

Whistler shares unique features with the festive Tyrolean ski resort that make it ripe for outbreaks. As a tourist town, it has a transient population, with people coming and going, either bringing the virus in, or catching it and taking it back home. With a population of around 13,000, it has some three million visitors annually.

For those who live and work there, there's also a severe housing shortage, and people living in close quarters — a factor that can help the virus spread, and that health officials have linked to the severity of the outbreaks.

It's not altogether clear when the first P1 variant in British Columbia arrived, although the province's weekly epidemiological data sheets first mention 11 cases in its Feb. 21 to 27 report. Notably, the report said, none of those people had travelled outside of the country, meaning they caught it from community spread.

By the next report, on March 22, there were 84 new cases of people with the Brazil variant; by March 29, there were 269 new cases.

At the end of last month, Henry ordered the Whistler Blackcomb ski resort closed, citing the continued COVID spikes in the area, outbreaks mostly among younger people and linked to household spread and community gatherings.

“We are starting to see cases increase again in (Whistler), particularly in the past week with the more worrisome cluster of the P1 Brazil variant of concern,” Henry said on March 29.

Geoff Buchheister, the vice president and chief operating officer of Whistler Blackcomb, said in a statement at the time, that while

BEST THING WE CAN DO ... IS TO BEGIN WINDING DOWN.

the closure order “caught us all by surprise, we fully support the government's direction and we're doing our part to comply.”

“At this time, we believe the best thing we can do to support the order is to begin winding down winter operations.”

Local officials, including Mayor Jack Crompton, made a concerted push to get prioritized vaccinations. “This protects Whistlerites, but I believe it will protect the province as well,” Mayor Jack Crompton told The Canadian Press earlier this week.

“The community vaccination means that when people come from Vancouver in to this community and go home, they'll be more protected than they would've been otherwise,” Compton said.

The town, comprised largely of hospitality workers and small businesses, has seen livelihoods devastated by the pandemic.

“Whistler does not have an economy in the middle of COVID-19. That's never been clearer than when the mountain closed and the vast majority of our community was out of work,” said Crompton.