The stands will remain half full at Prospera Place next week.
A lifting of the 50% capacity restriction for hockey games and other indoor organized events, announced Tuesday by the government for much of BC, will not apply to Kelowna and other areas of Interior Health.
“I’m really disappointed,” Kelowna Rockets president and general manager Bruce Hamilton said in an interview. “Vancouver and Victoria get to go to full capacity, but we don’t. It’s very frustrating.
“We’ve already been requiring our fans to be double vaccinated,” Hamilton said. “We’ve done everything the government has been requiring us to do, and more.”
The capacity limits for indoor events will be removed on Monday in Vancouver and other areas of the province, just in time for the Canucks’ season home-opener on Tuesday at the 19,000-seat Rogers Arena. Fans will have to show proof of double vaccination.
Hamilton said the Rockets had been told by government officials that the 50% capacity limit at Prospera Place would continue after provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced the move to full capacity for arenas in Vancouver and Victoria.
Through its communications division, Interior Health said in an email to The Daily Courier late on Tuesday afternoon that: “Nothing is changing provincially until Oct. 25 and we will be able to provide clarity on the status in IH on Friday.”
For his part, Hamilton says he agrees the government has to make public health decisions based on its sense of the current risk posed by the pandemic.
“I’m not a medical person, but I do know our (COVID-19) numbers in Kelowna have been going down for quite a while now,” he said. “Us and Kamloops, the numbers have been going down steady. With these limits staying at 50%, it seems like we’re still paying the price for the summer.”
New case counts of COVID-19 in the greater Kelowna area have declined in seven of the past eight weeks. The current spread of the disease in greater Kelowna is now at 20% of the level it was at in mid-August.
Vaccination rates in two Kelowna neighborhoods, Glenmore and the Mission, are above the provincial average, though other areas still have rates a few points below the average.
The Rockets next home game is Oct. 30 versus Victoria. Their first home game was last Friday, a 4-2 victory over Kamloops, in front of more than 3,400 fans.
