B.C. staying home for the holidays

Strict limits on social gatherings in effect for Christmas, New Year's

Social gathering restrictions, put in place last month in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 in B.C., have been extended into the new year, meaning holiday gatherings will be a lot smaller this year.

Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.'s provincial health officer, extended her Nov. 19 order prohibiting British Columbians from socializing indoors with people outside of their households or core bubbles. A core bubble is one to two friends if you live alone.

The order, which was set to expire on Monday, now remains in effect until midnight on Jan. 8, 2021, and effectively bans people from inviting relatives or friends into their home during Christmas or Hanukkah and puts a kibosh on New Year's parties.

“For many of us, this will mean celebrating the coming important holidays in a different and smaller way than what we may be used to,” said Henry.

“We can still be festive. We can still connect with family and with friends in a safe and virtual way.”

The extension was ordered after Henry announced that 35 more people in B.C. died of COVID-19 over the weekend, bringing the total number of deaths to 527 since the start of the pandemic.

B.C. health officials announced another 2,020 positive test results, including 647 on Friday, 726 on Saturday and 647 on Sunday.

The Fraser Health region, which recorded 1,362 new cases over the weekend, continues to be the provincial epicentre of the disease.

The health authority, B.C.'s largest health region serving more than 1.6 million residents, has recorded 24,261 positive cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, a number that's nearly two-thirds of the provincial total of 38,152.

Although the case counts remain high, Henry says the numbers appear to be peaking, which proves that the restrictive measures introduced two weeks ago, which included a ban on adult team sports and a mandatory mask policy for indoor public places, are beginning to work.

“We want to limit our social interactions to those essential activities in our lives like work, school and other essential services,” she said. “Non-essential social interactions — things outside of work and school — where we had some leeway in the summer, when we had lower rates and lower transmission, we now need to pull back from. Any of those interactions should be done in a very safe low-risk manner with small numbers and outside.”

In a good news announcement, amid all the Christmas cancelling orders, Henry did reveal that B.C. would be receiving its first delivery of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine next week.

“It will be a start of a program. A very important start with just a small amount to start with to ensure that we get our logistics going,” she said. “But our ability to start protecting elders and seniors, particularly those in our care homes and the health care workers who care for them, will be an important step forward in our COVID-19 struggle.”

Henry also loosened restrictions on drive-in and drive-thru vehicle events and will now permit “drop-off-and-leave events,” such as drive-thru toy drives, and “drive-in and stay events,” such as drive-in movies and Christmas light displays, as long as people remain in their vehicles.

While the province continues to strongly discourage travel outside of your local community, a travel ban wasn't added to Henry's social distancing order. An Angus Reid poll released Monday indicated that six per cent of British Columbians are still planning to leave their community or the province to visit family or friends during the holiday season.