Restrictions on B.C. restaurants, pubs and gyms brought back amid rising Covid cases
Dr. Bonnie Henry called it a day to reflect and make some changes.
On Monday, the provincial health officer reported 2,518 new Covid-19 cases in British Columbia since Friday, or an average of 839 a day.
Henry also announced 329 new cases of variants of concerns for a total of 2,233 cases, with 413 active variant cases.
Henry said with “exponential growth” of new cases over the last six days, a circuit breaker is needed to “break the chain of transmission.”
She announced new orders lasting for the next three weeks, from midnight tonight to April 19:
- Indoor dining at all food and liquor serving premises is paused. The locations can stay open for full meal service on patios, take-out and delivery. Those that only serve snacks or appetizers must close
- Indoor adult group fitness activities of any kind, like gyms, fitness centres and studios, are also paused. It’s restricted to individual or one-on-one activities only.
- Indoor faith services have been suspended
- People are encouraged to work at home as much as possible
- Whistler-Blackcomb ski resort is closed through to April 19, to address and prevent community spread related to non-essential travel
The new case counts were 936 on Saturday (Mar. 27), 805 on Saturday and 774 on Monday, pushing the grand total to 98,165.
Of the new cases since Friday, 83 per cent were in the Fraser and Vancouver Coastal health regions.
- 816 Vancouver Coastal
- 1,280 Fraser
- 142 Island
- 156 Interior
- 121 Northern
- three residents who normally live outside Canada
There are currently 299 people with Covid-19 in hospital with 79 in critical or intensive care.
There have been six more deaths, raising the total to 1,455.
To learn about amended and existing province wide restrictions, visit: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/covid-19/info/restrictions
A total of 699,092 doses of three Covid vaccines have been administered in B.C.,with 87,289 second doses.
Henry also announced Monday B.C. is pausing the use of the AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine for people under the age of 55 until they get additional information as they could cause blood clots.
“We have other vaccines options and we will be using them,” said Henry.
Henry said if you have received the AZ vaccine, and it’s been more than 20 days and you are showing no symptoms, then there are no concerns.
If you got the AZ vaccine and you’ve had symptoms like headaches or swelling, you can seek medical attention.
“What we do know is this is very rare, and it’s unlikely we will see any cases in B.C., or in Canada, but we have a test for it and there is treatment,” Henry said.
Henry also said students from grade 12 down to grade four will be expected to wear masks in all schools across the province.
Update on outbreaks:
· Cottonwoods Care Centre long-term care in Kelowna has 27 cases: 24 residents and three staff.
· Kelowna General Hospital unit 5B has 10 cases: five patients and five staff, with one death connected to the outbreak.