THE Surrey Board of Trade and the South Asian Business Association are speaking together to urge the City of Surrey to immediately declare a local state of emergency amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

“I know that this means closing down businesses for a period of time, except for essential services – this is a huge ask. But we must mitigate the spread of germs to counter this virus for the good of our economic future,” said Anita Huberman, CEO, Surrey Board of Trade.

Residents and workers, except for essential workers, need to be ordered to stay at home for a period of time. We can no longer leave it to people to self-isolate. Some are just not doing it – compromising others, compromising the future of our city and our nations’ economy, said the Surrey Board of Trade and the South Asian Business Association.

“We have seen time and time again, not only in the South Asian community, but throughout Surrey, that some residents and businesses are not realizing the severity of COVID-19, by continuing to hold large gatherings and not social distancing,” said Ken Dhillon, President, South Asian Business Association.

“The City of Surrey has a leadership opportunity. In fact both the Surrey Board of Trade and the South Asian Business Association call on the federal government to issue a national state of emergency providing leadership from the top. Surrey’s business community wants to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19. Extreme measures need to be taken now,” the two organizations added.