Retailers on the rebound according to Statistics Canada

New in this update:There are 90 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in BC over the past 24 hours and 2 more deaths. Both deaths are seniors who had been living on the lower mainland. There is one new case of the virus in Island Health. Over the past week, there have been 10 new cases confirmed in our region. All are considered community exposures which means, at this point, it is not known where the virus originated. However, health officials say they expect to find the source of the cases as their contact tracing investigations continue.BC's Minister of Public Safety says tougher fines and more enforcement are now in place, in an attempt to stop large public and private parties that have been the source of most new COVID-19 infections. Mike Farnworth says it’s time to crack down on the small minority of people who are putting others health at risk. Party organizers will be fined $2000 dollars for gatherings of more than 50 people or for smaller gatherings if contact numbers are not collected and social distancing is not maintained. The same fine applies to people who host more than 5 guest at Air BnBs and other vacation rentals. Party goers who refuse to disperse and people who bully or abuse restaurant workers will be fined $200 dollars. Farnworth says he's empowering police, bylaw officers, and inspectors from provincial liquor, cannabis, community safety, gaming and Worksafe BC to levy fines."Stricter enforcement is necessary. The province is building a comprehensive and integrated compliance and enforcement regime to put a halt to bad actors in all corners in BC. This is an 'all hands on deck' approach."—Ministry of Public Safety & Solicitor General, Mike Farnworth.However, neither RCMP nor local bylaw officials have been consulted about the plan and there is no word whether the province will compensate local governments for bylaw and police hours spent on enforcing public health orders.It appears retail stores across the country are bouncing back, according to new numbers released today by Statistics Canada. The Stats Can report says sales were up in all types of stores. The numbers show at the start of the pandemic, from February through April, retail sales fell by a third. Things began to improve in May and June with increases of 143 per cent in clothing stores, 70 per cent in home furnishings and 65 per cent at hobby, book and music stores, compared to the previous months. And, retailers are doing better now, than they were before the pandemic. In BC, sales in June of 2020 were close to two per cent higher than they were compared to June of 2019.