Dr. Henry asks British Columbians `stay small, stay local'

Dr. Bonnie Henry is pleading with British Columbians to “stay small and stay local” this holiday week.

During Monday's COVID-19 update, B.C.'s provincial health officer said social gathering restrictions that have been put in place to slow the surge of positive cases are working and must be adhered to if the province's case curve is to remain flat.

She advised British Columbians to “continue to use our layers of protection as the holidays approach” and celebrate Christmas only with those living in one's household. Those who live alone are allowed to interact with the one or two people inside their core bubble.

That means no big dinners, no open houses and no parties.

“If you are in doubt, then err on the side of caution and choose to stay away right now,” Henry said. “This is how we will get into the new year with reduced cases and reduced risk.”

B.C. recorded 1,667 new cases of COVID-19 on the weekend, the province's lowest weekend caseload in more than a month. The 486 positive tests recorded between Saturday and Sunday was also the lowest one-day total since Nov. 5.

Henry says the numbers show that social gathering restrictions, which are in place until Jan. 8, are working — but the numbers are still too high.

“We are starting to see a levelling of our COVID-19 curve in B.C., and that is good news, but it is a levelling at a very high level, which means that transmission is continuing to happen, particularly in the Lower Mainland, but also the Interior and the north are having quite large transmission events,” she said.

There were 41 additional COVID-19 related deaths on the weekend, which raises B.C's death toll from the disease to 765.

“The new people who've died — most of those cases, again — were people in long-term care,” said Henry.

Another 341 people are being treated in hospital, 80 of whom are in intensive care.

There have been a total of 47,067 positive tests for COVID-19 in the province since the start of the pandemic.

Henry noted that 3,644 British Columbians, mostly health workers, received shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine last week at two clinics.

On Monday, Henry confirmed that vaccine deliveries have now arrived in every health region in the province.

“The other health regions are preparing, even as we speak, to get immunization clinics underway in the coming days,” she said.

Since the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine must be stored in ultracold freezers at minus-70ºC, Henry said health officials are still figuring out a way to transfer the vaccine to places, such as long-term care facilities, where it's most needed.

“It's still a very limited amount of vaccine,” Henry said “We're only getting about 30 trays between now and the first week of January, so it is a small amount to make sure that the delivery system works, that all of the things are in place for the clinics to get up and running.''