B.C. Covid restrictions to continue for at least few more weeks

Feb 5, 2021 | 11:39 AM

B.C.’s top doctor says the province needs to “stay the path” when it comes to the current COVID-19 health restrictions and orders.

Dr. Bonnie Henry has announced the measures will remain in place for an indefinite period. (Click here to see the orders)

“We need to buy time to understand how these variants of concern — or whether these variants of concern — are going to affect transmission in our community, and we need to buy time to get our immunization program back up and running at full speed,” Henry told a news conference Friday.

Henry said the measures will be reviewed, and potentially relaxed, by the end of this month.

“The data will tell us if more action is required, or if we can start to ease the restrictions in place.”

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She said if the trends continue, planning could start for the return of activities like youth sports and faith services by the end of February.

All #CovidBC public health orders and restrictions in BC are being kept in place. We need to use this time to reduce the potential for new COVID-19 variants to spread in our province, as we await more vaccine from the manufacturers. We can get to the brighter, safer days ahead.

— BC Government News (@BCGovNews) February 5, 2021

Henry said one or two super spreading events could quickly wipe out all of the progress to date.

“Seeing one more friend, having one birthday party with one outside our household, is all that it could take in our communities.”

Henry said cases have been steadily decreasing since December, but B.C. could see rapid increase in a short period of time, especially with the new variants in play.

“We are seeing some encouraging signs in B.C. The efforts we are all doing are working. We are bending our curve slowly and steadily, but we need to protect the progress we have made and not squander our success. To do this, we need to use this time to buy ourselves more time,” Henry explained.

The provincial health officer stated people between ages of 20 and 49 are driving the the majority of new cases at this point, and transmission events are mostly from social gatherings and workplace interactions.

Henry said they are seeing a continuous decrease in cases in people over age 80 which she attributes to the immunization program in care homes.

“That is very gratifying for us as it reflects the protection we’ve been able to provide people, particularly in long term care homes, by the immunization program.”

New cases in the province are down to an average of 425 a day over the last week, with 465 cases reported on Thursday.

by Pete McIntyre

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