The Yukon currently has no active cases of COVID-19, but officials are urging Yukoners to remain vigilant while plans for an incremental reopening are underway.

“The measures we continue to take both individually and as a collective are addressing the spread of the virus, and these measures are clearly working,” Premier Sandy Silver told a media briefing Tuesday afternoon.

The premier said his government is cognizant that pandemic measures have had a severe impact on Yukon businesses and individuals.

“We know that our economy has been significantly impacted by the measures we have taken to date,” Silver said.

“It has been great to see businesses across the territory demonstrating leadership with this ever-evolving situation.”

Several businesses across the territory have begun reopening in the last week with safety precautions in place.

Official guidelines for safe management of customer traffic are being developed and will be available soon, Silver said.

The Yukon’s food trucks and farmers’ markets have been provided with guidelines for reopening and can be expected to be operational this summer.

Golf courses and recycling facilities are also beginning to tentatively open their doors.

The Raven Recycling Society announced earlier this week that it’s now accepting cardboard, boxboard and brown paper bags at the public drop-off.

It is still not accepting mixed paper, plastics, tin, wax cartons nor refundables.

Good lines of communication are pivotal between business owners and staff, to ensure that all employees feel safe and ready to return to work, said the premier and Dr. Brendan Hanley, the chief medical officer.

“A well-structured workplace at this COVID-conscious time is a safe workplace,” Hanley said.

“That’s a workplace we could consider safe, even for people who might have underlying medical conditions.”

That means ensuring physical distancing rules are set up for staff within the workplace and that people who are sick stay home.

Silver said provisions for workers who might need to remain at home, while their workplace reopens, is on the mind of government.

The Yukon widened testing requirements last week and has seen a small surge in the number of tests conducted since then.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the Yukon had conducted 1,041 tests.

Of those, 1,012 were negative, with 11 confirmed cases that have all now recovered. Eight tests are pending.

While he is encouraged by the stable number of cases in the Yukon, Hanley said, he is still wary of relaxing restrictions too soon.

“To see those numbers stabilize is an affirmation so far that we are doing the right thing,” Hanley said.

“It’s a cause for celebration, but not relaxation.”

He said the Yukon is not yet in the clear, and a second wave of the virus is still a potential threat to the territory.

“One of my fears is that we will move too quickly trying to get back to normal,” Hanley said.

Yukoners will see a slow and incremental lift on restrictions, he explained. A timeline for relaxation is not yet available.

Earlier this month, Hanley said that the Yukon is likely a month away from seeing real changes in the direction of normalcy.

The Yukon has been modelling the effects of public health restrictions on the potential spread of the virus. Hanley explained that modelling is not intended as a prediction of the future, but describes a range of possibilities in different scenarios.

Modelling is made more difficult because of the Yukon’s unique position, with not yet enough cases to fall on the curve.

Examining the risk of imported cases was one focus for modelling, Hanley said.

One case of COVID-19 arriving in the Yukon in March could have resulted in 2,500 cases by May 1, while 10 cases arriving could have resulted in 7,000 cases and 1,000 hospitalizations.

“Our health system could easily be overwhelmed in the first scenario, not to mention the second,” Hanley said.

“Instead of being overwhelmed, we remain at a level where COVID is hardly visible …. We are in an enviable position and we want to stay here.”