Make plans to stay close to home this summer: Dr. Bonnie Henry

Don't plan on travelling far from home this summer.

B.C.'s provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry stressed that point during her COVID-19 update today, May 5, pointing out there will be little international travel allowed for some time to come.

“This summer, we are going to be closer to home, where we are going to have to find our joy and our fun within our own neighbourhood,” Henry said.

She also stressed that restrictions are going to be reduced gradually and details of how that is going to be done will be released by Premier John Horgan tomorrow.

“The orders and restrictions we have put in place are still in place so please, don’t start planning your play dates and expanding your bubble (of people you are in contact with) too soon,” she urged. “We have put the brakes on it, for sure. That is a testament to the work that everybody has done across this province, but we have not yet stopped this train and, as the modelling has shown, moving too quickly can undo all the work that we have done.”

For the first time in weeks, the number of new cases COVID-19 infection is below double digits with eight recorded in B.C., bringing the total to 2,232.

There were no new cases in the Interior Health region which has 177 cases. There were 1,031 cases in the Fraser Health region, 849 in the Vancouver Central region, 124 in the Vancouver Island region and 51 in the Northern region.

There were four new deaths in B.C., bringing the death toll to 221.

The outbreak at the Hawthorn Park long-term care facility in Kelowna has been declared over.

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