Party host served $2300 ticket by Victoria Police

New in this update:Victoria Police served fines to a party host and a party goer over the weekend. Police say the host was twice warned about COVID party rules on Friday night before being hit with a $2300 dollar ticket. Police say 30 people were in the one bedroom apartment at the time but dozens more had come and gone between the warnings. Officers returned to the same Fort Street apartment for another crowded party early Sunday morning. When one partygoer refused to leave, he was hit with a $230 dollar fine. The fines were levied under new COVID-19 public safety rules, announced by the province on Friday.Nanaimo's Loaves and Fishes foodbank is turning the hardships of COVID-19 into an opportunity to improve services. Its executive director says many volunteers were uncomfortable about continuing to serve when the pandemic started. The foodbank was able to replace them with six younger workers for longer shifts thanks to a $50,000 grant from the Victoria Foundation. Peter Sinclair says other cash donations paid for COVID needed supplies like tents for outside food distribution. He says food donations also increased dramatically from restaurants that were shut down due to the pandemic.“At the height of it, we were receiving 9,000 dozen eggs a week: all of them were supposed to go to restaurants and we also got a lot of salmon coming in, again destined for restaurants. So we saw a dramatic increase in donations.” —Peter Sinclair, Loaves and Fishes Foodback Executive Director.Sinclair says Loaves and Fishes shared its overflow with other not for profit groups. As a result, that decreased the number of its clients, who collected their food hampers from other local organizations.Casino operators are hoping to get the green light to reopen, now that they have created restart plans, with the BC Lottery Corporation. The new rules would mean fewer slot machines, more plexiglass and only dealers would be allowed to touch the cards. But, BC's Minister of Health, Adrian Dix says there are NO plans to reopen casinos in BC, although they are open in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Quebec. BC's Deputy Provincial Health Officer Dr. Reka Gustafson, says casinos are too high risk."COVD 19 transmission is highest risk in close settings where people are in close proximity, touching many things, and especially if some of the behaviours are altered by alcohol. We also know that as people get older, their risk of severe disease increases. So from a disease control perspective, these would be particularly worrisome places to reopen." —Dr. Reka Gustafson.Last year, casinos contributed close to one and a half billion dollars to provincial government revenues. Close to 3,000 casino workers were laid off when the pandemic began.Starting today, masks are now mandatory on all BC Ferries and your local transit buses.