Dr. Bonnie Henry asks British Columbians to stay home for spring break

With B.C.’s spring school break starting this weekend, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has a clear message to everyone in the province: Don’t travel.

“What we need to do is stay local,” Dr. Henry said during a news briefing today, March 11.

“Explore your local community. Explore your region. I do think, over March break, if you are a family and you’re going to your cabin and it’s self-contained, that’s OK. But we really do need to stick to our households.”

There are COVID hot spots in B.C. right now, particularly in the Fraser Health region and in some areas in the Northern Health region, she said.

“There are areas where we have a lot of transmissions happening and we do not want people to travel from those areas to an area of low risk,” Dr. Henry said. “And, we don’t want you to visit an area that is high risk right now because those communities are trying to manage the outbreak in their community and it puts you at risk and then you bring that home with you.”

The Fraser Health region is also a hot spot for variants of concern that are easier to transmit than the regular strain of COVID-19.

She has eased restrictions on outdoor gatherings so groups of 10 can get together, but should still keep safe distances from each other.

READ MORE: Small outdoor gatherings now allowed in B.C.

Dr. Henry recommended people look at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control website to identify the higher risk areas.

The darker the colour on the map below the higher number of infections per 100,000 population.

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