Northern Vision Development has closed its Edgewater Hotel because of the downturn in business related to COVID-19, says the company’s chief executive officer.

Rich Thompson explained in an interview this morning any guests who had booked rooms will be accommodated at NVD’s Gold Rush Inn or Coast High Country Inn.

The company is also taking steps to make room for Edgewater staff at the other two hotels, he told the Star.

The hotel employs eight full-time staff, three part-time and the manager. It closed Saturday.

There had been no confirmed cases in the Yukon as of noon today.

Thompson said the decision to close was precipitated by the March 7 icing of the Arctic Winter Games and the cancellation of room bookings in general related to concern over travelling.

“For the time being we are consolidating our business in the Best Western and the Coast and, as much as possible, deploying our staff across those two hotels as opposed to all three,” he said.

Thompson said nobody knows what tomorrow or next week will bring because the concern over COVID-19 and actions that should be taken are very fluid, and could change.

The two hotels are also increasing general cleaning efforts and expanding efforts to clean individual rooms after guests depart, he said.

Thompson said they are also adjusting their room scheduling to keep recently vacated rooms empty for a longer period to further reduce the possibility of the virus spreading.

Restaurant staff have also been asked to examine how to manage capacity to address the recommendation to provide additional space between patrons, he said.

With the downturn in business, Thompson said, it should not be difficult to implement a longer room rotation or accommodate additional spacing in the restaurants.

NVD has also asked staff in the head office to work from home.

“We are obviously in a good position to try and consolidate as much as possible to look after the best interest of our staff long term, our company long term and our stakeholders,” said the chief executive officer.

“It is very, very difficult out there ... very fluid.

“These decisions are day-to-day,” Thompson said. “We have never seen anything like this, nor has anybody.

“This is our play book now. We do not know what we are doing next week until we get more information.”