For months the residents of Vancouver Island have been calling for restrictions for people B次元官网网址渉olidayingB次元官网网址� on the Island.

The reason we cannot afford to have these numbers doubling, tripling, quadrupling is the ability to treat the sick. We donB次元官网网址檛 have the medical facilities or staff to accommodate these increasing numbers. Our medical frontline workers have borne the extreme stress along with our residents struggling to receive health care and treatments outside COVID.

I moved from the Interior to Vancouver Island 34 years ago with my spouse who was born on Vancouver Island, even back then the population was made up of older residents, this is still the retirement destination for many Canadians. We cannot afford to fill our hospitals with COVID-stricken patients.

Yes, it is a holiday destination, many businesses rely on this for their livelihoods, but this is in B次元官网网址渘ormalB次元官网网址� times, not in a pandemic crisis. The government needs to stop walking the B次元官网网址減oliticalB次元官网网址� line and have the courage to shut down the B.C.-government-owned ferry system to the Island for essential travel only. The B次元官网网址渃urbsB次元官网网址� need to be B次元官网网址渞estrictionsB次元官网网址� and we all need to do our part to keep this under control.

We have light at the end of the tunnel and all we have to do B次元官网网址� is get in the trenches with those who we just celebrated on Nov. 11. They fought a good fight to protect our rights and freedoms B次元官网网址� they did this by putting everyone before their interests. Now we are being called upon to do the same.

This is not about you B次元官网网址� it is about the people you care about, the ones who cannot fight this virus, the ones who will pay with their lives if we donB次元官网网址檛 set aside our democratic rights and freedoms to protect our most vulnerable. This means wearing a mask, doing only essential shopping, keeping distant and, in this wave, limit contact with loved ones so we can all ring in the new year with hope and good cheer.

In early 2021 we will have a vaccine to protect them, we will be able to return to normal life slowly, but for now B次元官网网址� we need to support each other without division (political or otherwise). We are in this together and this is how we will get out of it, and letB次元官网网址檚 work our hardest so no more lives are lost.

Jo-Anne Berezanski

North Saanich