Provincial Health Officer reminding British Columbians to stay patient

Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry is reminding all of us to be patient as B.C’s COVD-19 cases continue to decrease

She says as we move forward, sticking to the provincial health measures and opening what is safe, will do us all a favour in the long run.

“As you know we are gradually continuing to ease restrictions and our objective as we move into these phases of our restart here in B.C. is to keep our cases of COID-19 low, and to make sure that we slow any growth in our communities. To do this we have been, and will continue to open what is safe to open and keeping closed those things that are riskier.”

“We are being thoughtful and measured in our response and we are adapting as we go. It is a gradual transition and we are slowly turning up the dimmer switch as we learn to adapt at each of the stages that we’re going through,” said Dr. Henry.

Dr. Henry also says if we continue to follow the provincial guidelines, more things could be opening soon.

“Looking ahead, we are going to transition to developing this guidance for more things like spas, resorts, activities like recreation sports and we’re working to be able to safely restart other parts of our economy, and we’re developing the tool in partnership with the B.C Center for Disease Control and WorkSafe BC to be able to do this.”

She also said that as much as we want to get out and visit family and play sports, now just isn’t the time.

“We will have the opportunity to do these things again, but just not now. This is not the time to take those risks. It is far easier to maintain a safe physical distance from four people then from 40 and those are the things we need to think about now. It only takes one person in a crowded setting to spread it to many others and we have seen that around the world and we have also seen that in communities across B.C.”

In the latest daily update, 11 new cases were reported, bringing the total number of cases in B.C to 2756.

Vancouver Island’s case count remains at 130.

No new deaths were reported today and sofar 2416, or roughly 87 per cent of people that had the virus are now fully recovered.