BC has renewed its state of emergency today, extending it until April 28.
With the extension, the provincial government retains its ability to use certain extraordinary powers like controlling the buying and selling of certain goods like food and medical equipment.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also announced today that the federal government will be expanding its eligibility criteria for the Canada emergency response benefit, including people like contract or seasonal workers.
There are 44 new cases of COVID-19 and 3 new deaths from the virus in BC today, bringing the total number of cases in the province to 1,561. Of those, 670 cases are in the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority region.
There are currently 131 people with the virus in BC who are hospitalized and 59 of those people are in critical care.
There are three new cases of COVID-19 at the West Kelowna nursery where the province’s first community outbreak began, but there are still no new cases of the virus at the Okanagan Correctional Centre.
At the federal correctional facility in Mission, however, there are now 48 cases of the virus and 7 people connected to the facility are hospitalized.
In today’s briefing, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry discussed the safety of the health care system for non-COVID-19 patients as well as what the transition away from the current restrictive public health measures in the province may look like.
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Henry reassured that while the province has taken extraordinary steps to boost its capacity to treat virus patients like canceling all elective surgeries, it is still safe for people to visit the hospital or call 911 if they have a need for urgent medical care.
Minister of Health Adrian Dix also announced that the province will be holding virtual town halls over the next week in each of the province’s five health authorities. Constituents will be able to ask questions of both elected representatives and public health authorities.
The first of these virtual town halls will take place on Friday in the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority.
In response to questions about what BC’s path back to ‘normal’ will look like, Henry emphasized that there are a number of important pieces that need to fall into place before the province can relax some of its public health measures. She highlighted increased testing capacity throughout the province and the possession of a serological test — which indicates the presence of antibodies to the virus in order to give public health authorities an idea of how many people have immunity to it — as two such critical factors.
Henry also emphasized that while the epidemic curve is flattening in BC, people must continue to “hold the line” and should be prepared for a long road back to a pre-pandemic state of affairs.
“I think it’s really important to recognize that we’re not at the end of our beginning yet,” she said. “We’re not at anywhere near the end of what we’re going to do with this and normal is going to look quite different for some time.”
Stay up to date on UBC information related to COVID-19 by visiting ubyssey.ca/covid-19, the websites of the BCCDC, the Public Health Agency of Canada or the World Health Organization. The province has set up a dedicated COVID-19 phone line at 1-888-COVID19 or text at 1-888-268-4319. For updates on UBC’s response to COVID-19, visit ubc.ca/campus-notifications/
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