While new confirmed cases of COVID-19 appear to be levelling off for the most part in British Columbia, save for a spike Wednesday, Dr. Bonnie Henry warned of a potential second surge come in the fall that could prove even more dangerous.
During the daily press conference Wednesday (April 22), Dr. Henry, B.C.'s provincial health officer, said it's still unclear if there will be a seasonality to COVID-19, where its transmission will wane in the summer and come back again in the fall, as seen with other respiratory viruses like influenza.
“It is very concerning to me that once we have influenza complicating things, and the other respiratory viruses that we see, it's much more challenging to detect which one is influenza, which one is RSV, which one is parainfluenza, which one is COVID-19,” Dr. Henry said.
“It's so important for us to try and get this down to zero as much as we can now and that's why we've been emphasizing how important it is not to be around others if you're sick, because come the fall, when we start to see other respiratory viruses again, it gets much more complicated for us.”
Dr. Henry's comments come after Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States, told The Washington Post the “assault of the virus on our nation” next winter could be more severe than the first wave, which has already caused the death of more than 47,000 people in America.
“We know that influenza puts people in hospital every year and we know that (COVID-19) is going to put people in hospital as well so yes, there's very much a potential of a surge come the fall,” Dr. Henry said, alluding to the hospital capacity concerns that have led much of B.C.'s initial COVID-19 response.
“That's one of the things that we're working very hard to have in place – the surveillance that we need, the testing that we need, the contact tracing in our communities that we need. But we need to do everything we can now to try and stamp it out as much as possible so that we at least have a fighting chance when we're going into the fall.”
As of Wednesday, there have been 1,795 cases of COVID-19 in B.C., resulting in 90 deaths. With 1,079 full recoveries, 626 active cases remain in the province.
