The Mayor of Fortune is offering his best wishes to the people of the French island of St. Pierre after a recent outbreak of COVID-19 linked to the hospital.

The latest numbers out of the French Department indicate seven confirmed cases in the latest outbreak while contact tracing continues.

Many parents are keeping their kids from school while most businesses and offices in St. Pierre are closed.

Fortune is the gateway to St. Pierre et Miquelon, but the regular passenger ferry service to the islands has been shut down since last March when the pandemic struck.

Fortune Mayor Charles Penwell says not only has that been an economic blow to the town, but it’s been hard for St. Pierrais who live in Fortune and elsewhere on the Burin Peninsula and who have been cut off from their family and friends back home.

He compares it to Newfoundlanders and Labradorians with family in places like Alberta — except that travel back and forth to St. Pierre is “virtually impossible.”