ILL-ADVISED GATHERINGS
Social events fuel COVID surge
Out-of-control social gatherings are leading to a jump in COVID-19 cases and a warning from the provincial health officer that more restrictions could follow.
On Thursday, Dr. Bonnie Henry reported 274 cases of COVID-19 over the previous 24 hours in B.C. — a daily record — and 1,920 active cases of the disease, with 71 people being treated in hospital including 24 in intensive care.
She said 4,425 people were in self-quarantine after being potentially exposed to the virus, including 160 from a school in Kelowna.
Henry said the surge in daily cases was linked to social events that had got out of control. Three-quarters of Thursday's cases were in the
Fraser Health region and 70 per cent on Wednesday.
She said that in particular there had been a number of weddings over the past few weeks where more people attended than originally planned. There have also been cases linked to party buses and a small percentage linked to large Thanksgiving events.
“These events have caused clusters in outbreaks that have now spilled over into our health care system,” she said
Henry said people should keep important celebrations small, and keep a written guest list. “I ask you not to invite others to your gathering right now, and not take offence if people choose not to come because they are concerned about their own safety or about the risk that they may be bringing with them,” she said.
“That means we have to pull back on the social side of our lives. Everybody needs to make their own assessment about this but six (people) is the maximum, let's say, for those social interactions.”
Henry warned additional steps were available to her office to control the disease. “We are considering all the options and certainly changing of orders is one of them,” Henry said. “Social gatherings, especially recently, weddings, and other celebrations, are proving to be high risk for all of us.”
Her office has long ordered social gatherings to be less than 50 people — and socially distanced — but recommends keeping social groups to six. The office has the power to further restrict party size limits and weddings and shut down party buses.
Last month, Henry shuttered nightclubs and banquet halls af
ter a rise in cases traced to those venues.
There have been six COVID-19 clusters in B.C. schools since inclass learning resumed in the second week of September.
Henry said that while there had been 213 exposures (in around 10 per cent of schools), there had been very little transmission at those schools.
Around one-third of the school cases were in staff.
B.C.'s first school outbreak was reported on Wednesday at École de l'Anse-au-sable in Kelowna and has grown to five cases with 160 staff and students from kindergarten to Grade 3 in self-quarantine.
Health officials will declare a cluster to be an outbreak if it's apparent the spread has occurred at the school.
Henry said she would order the closure of a school only if too many teachers were sick. Children under 10 make up about 10 per cent of B.C.'s population, but account for five per cent of positive cases.
B.C. has reported on average 84 cases per 100,000 people over the past two weeks.
There are 19 active outbreaks in health care facilities, with 17 in long-term care homes.