Right from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, B.C. made the decision to err on the side of caution, forcing stores, restaurants, recreational facilities and all schools to close, unlike Sweden, which avoided a legislated response, depending on its citizens to voluntarily take precautions to limit the spread of the disease.
That less-invasive approach by Sweden, which kept primary schools, stores and restaurants open, has resulted in more residents developing community (herd) immunity. But compared to B.C., more Swedes have been infected and with much more deadly effects.
In a country of 10.23 million people, Sweden has had 22,082 cases of COVID-19 and 2,669 residents have died from the virus. Compare that B.C. with a population of 5.07 million, which as of today has reported 2,171 cases and 114 deaths.
In her noon-hour media briefing Saturday in Victoria, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said the difference in the death count between the two countries is enough to convince her B.C.’s mandatory restrictions on travel, business and social interactions and its public awareness campaign to prevent community transmission of the virus was the right call.
“I’ve been watching Sweden and have been looking at the measures they’ve taken and they’re actually very similar to the measures we’ve taken,” said Henry. “They have limited in-school classroom teaching and limited gatherings and groups and things like that around restaurants and other settings, although they may not be as extreme to the extent that we have here.
“I will say, the case fatality rates and the population fatality rates in Sweden are very, very high, so I think it’s a balancing of how much you value that response. They also have no evidence that we can see yet that they’ve reached the level of community immunity that would be protective from further outbreaks over coming weeks and months.”
Henry said B.C. has done well to keep the limit the number of cases and prevent COVID-19 deaths despite sharing a border with the United States, one of the worst-affected countries in the pandemic. Unlike the U.S., none of B.C. hospitals have been overwhelmed by critically-ill patients.
“As we know, early on, Washington state had a very dramatic increase in cases in community spread that affected us quite dramatically here in B.C.,” said Henry. “It’s a balancing. We all have our own approach to make sure we’re doing what we need to do given the situation that we’re in, and I think we’ve done that here in British Columbia.
“We’ve made some decisions about how we’re going to approach it and people in B.C. have been doing their part, and that has protected us. It’s protected our health care system and it’s protected us in terms of people who are being affected who are more vulnerable to having severe illness or death.”
As of Saturday there were 26 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in B.C., bringing the total to 2,171. The total for the Northern Health region remains at 49, with no new cases over the previous day.
The current case count in the other health regions, with Friday’s totals in parenthesis, are: Fraser Health 992 (978), Vancouver Coastal Health 832 (823), Interior Health 175 (174) and Vancouver Island Health 123 (121).
There have been two additional deaths in the province (one in Fraser Health, one in Vancouver Coastal Health) over the past 24 hours for a total 114 deaths. There are now 1,376 British Columbians who have fully recovered from the virus.
Twenty-four long-term care or assisted-living homes are currently affected by COVID-19, with three acute-care outbreaks. Seventy-two people are now being treated in hospitals, 23 of whom are in intensive care.
