Easing of COVID restrictions in B.C. may begin after Family Day long weekend

While not making any promises, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry is hoping to make changes to her orders restricting social activities in B.C. before the Feb. 21 Family Day long weekend.

She made that comment during a news briefing today, Jan. 28, the second anniversary of the first case of COVID being found in B.C.

READ MORE: Two years ago today first COVID case discovered in B.C.

“We are seeing the peak, I hope, in our hospitals right now,” Dr. Henry said. “There is a strain on our hospitals. We don’t expect the census (total number of COVID cases in hospital) to drop for some time. We’re also at the point where much in the community has changed because we have a level of immunity because we’ve stepped forward for our booster doses.”

The latest restrictions were imposed in December and are due to be reviewed on Feb. 16. Dr. Henry plans to announce any changes on Feb. 15.

But don’t expect those to be dramatic.

“If we are continuing on this trajectory then yes, I do hope that we will be able to lift some of those restrictions and gradually get back to those needed connections,” Dr. Henry said.

“I am looking at Family Day as a time to get back to – not to opening things up completely because we know, and we’ve seen that around the world, that when you do things precipitously you can get a rebound that can be really hard on people because we start to see more transmission again.”

She does expect to see new variants of concern in the virus and she does expect levels of immunity to wane so, when respiratory season, or flu and cold season, resumes next fall, COVID is likely to be an issue.

“We know that COVID-19 will be with us for some time,” Dr. Henry said. “It’s not done with us yet.”

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