A headline that was factually incorrect was used when this story was first posted. The current headline is correct. The Citizen regrets the error.
Planners of large-scale public gatherings like the Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver are going to be forced to cancel those events this summer.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said the extreme contagious nature of COVID-19 and its deadly effects on the population will rule out big summertime events in B.C. where people crowd together.
Locally, that means multi-day concert events like Cariboo Rocks the North and the annual agricultural fair known as the B.C. Northern Exhibition, both scheduled for August at Exhibition Park, face a real danger of being canceled this summer. Henry said people will have to scale back wedding plans, funerals and graduation ceremonies to avoid large crowds.
“Realistically, we will not be having those big events where people gather together this summer, that is a much riskier prospect than ever before,” said Henry, at Saturday afternoon’s media briefing in Victoria. “We do not have enough herd immunity or community immunity to protect everybody and allow that type of event to happen. So I think we’ll be seeing globally those types of events like large parades and large mass gatherings where we all come together, those will not be happening this summer.
“We can think about how we can celebrate important milestones, important things in our lives, that allows us to have a safe distance and we should start planning that now. So things like the PNE are not likely to happen this year. This is a challenging time around the world and it’s not going to be easy to get out of it, but those types of mass gatherings where we have lots of people together, this is not the time for that.”
There was one new case of COVID-19 reported Saturday in northern B.C. within the Northern Health region, among 29 new positive test results over the previous 24-hour period. That brings to 34 the total number of cases in Northern Health.
There have been 1,647 cases confirmed in B.C., including 686 in Vancouver Coastal Health, 680 in Fraser Health, 150 in Interior Health and 97 in Vancouver Island Health. Of the provincial total, 987 patients have made full recoveries.
The virus claimed three more lives and the death toll in the province has reached 81. There are 115 COVID-19 patients now hospitalized, 54 in critical care or intensive care.
Twenty long-term care or assisted-living care facilities have had COVID-19 cases with 288 people confirmed with the virus. The Mission Institution federal correctional facility in Mission has 70 cases, 60 of which are inmates.
“There’s a long incubation period for this virus,” said Henry. “People can be exposed and not be sick themselves for up to 14 days, so we have to think in two-week increments. So what happened on the Easter weekend for example, we’re going to start seeing if there’s impacts on our communities in the coming days.
“When we start to lift restrictions, we’re going to do it gradually and thoughtfully and we’re going to be watching. That watching period will be in two-week periods so we make sure we’re not getting ahead n of us and we’re not seeing rapid explosive growth that we’ve seen in other places around the world and in Canada.”
While the incidence of new cases is flattening in B.C., the province won’t be lifting any of its restrictions or orders until mid-May at the earliest, Henry said.
“We look at the modelling and we show we’re nearing, maybe, the end of the storm, but we’re right in the eye of the storm right now and we’re not going to be taking any measures in the next two weeks,” she said. “But we are planning for what it’s going to look like when we get to that point, probably in the middle of May, when we are able to take those actions that help increase our social connections, increase our industrial and business connections and also open up our health care system.”
Henry said the new normal for society will be to continue thorough hand-washing, covering coughs and sneezes, staying home when ill no matter how mild the illness and to keep safe social distances in interactions with other people.
“We need to look at how we can open our schools, open our businesses, but still maintain those safe distances between us, and that is what we will be working on with you and for you in the next couple of weeks,” she said.
“I do think there is possibilities in the summer that we’ll have lots of opportunities for more social interaction. We need to find a sweet spot, a balancing of connection that allows us to be with close contacts and close families but still protecting our health care system and those who are more vulnerable to having severe illness with this virus. So it’s going to be a modification for the next year.”
