Indefinite extension to orders
New variants make public gatherings even more dangerous in the spring
VANCOUVER — British Columbia’s top doctor has extended COVID-19 restrictions on gatherings in order to slow down the spread of the virus amid concerns about new variants, including a third one from California that could potentially be detected in the province.
Dr. Bonnie Henry said Friday a “hard push” is needed so youth sports and faith programs as well as limited social interactions can resume by the end of the month after controls were put in place in November.
The restrictions that were set to end at midnight local time are needed to see a “smooth, flat path to the finish,” Henry said.
Gatherings during Super Bowl, Family Day, Lunar New Year and Valentine’s Day could threaten progress made while promised vaccines have not yet been delivered, she said.
“In places where we have not seen transmission before, social gatherings that happened over the Christmas break for example, social gatherings that have happened on ski hills and other places have led to rapid transmission in some communities.”
The province has recorded 10 new cases of the U.K. and South African variants, for a total of 28 new variant cases.
Among the 19 cases of the U.K. variant, five were linked to travel, while one of the nine cases of the South African variant is related to travel. Tests for a variant from Brazil have been conducted but no cases have so far been detected.
Henry said she intentionally did not set a deadline for an end to her orders because if variants start to spread, “all bets are off” and some restrictions may need to be increased.
“We are in a place of a little bit of more uncertainty and we need to buy some time to understand if the positive things we are seeing are going to allow us to take away some of the restrictions we have in place now. And we don’t yet know that.”
Henry said she will continually review the data to determine if restrictions may be loosened before the end of the month.
“It’s not going to be, ‘Yay, we’re out of this, we’re back to normal,”‘ she said, adding a slow and thoughtful increase in social connections that everyone wants will be crucial.
“Now’s the time to prepare for how to do that safely. And I think if we look around at jurisdictions around us, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, they are actually looking at lifting some of the restrictions to take them to a place where we are now, so we need to put that in context, too.”