Wednesday May 27, 2020 ~ VICTORIA, BC [Updated May 29, 2020]
by Mary Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
Yesterday there were 11 new test-positive cases of COVID-19 in BC and no new deaths announced by Provincial Health Officer Dr Bonnie Henry. She and Health Minister Adrian Dix in their media session were cautiously optimistic about those numbers which are seen as a level of success with flattening the curve in BC.
Today May 27 there were still COVID-19 stats to announce: nine new cases, and one more death. The total cases in BC stands at 2,550 and the total number of deaths is 162. And Minister Dix said today that the 92 deaths (of the 162 or 56.8%) in long-term care homes is “unacceptably high”.
Getting people back to work:
And today in that context, Premier John Horgan said that in this second week of Phase 2 of the Restart BC economic recovery plan that he will look to see how comfortable people are in the marketplace (as employees and consumers) and how businesses are doing with getting people back to work.
“We wil see how Phase 2 goes before contemplating Phase 3,” said Horgan. He added that Minister Dix and Dr Henry “review data regularly” with an eye to making sure “people are safe”.
The Premier says he wants to get the economy back to people going to work, shopping, and visiting destinations around BC.
“We’re not at stage 3 yet – that will be sometime in later in middle of June. We’ll see how it goes,” said Horgan today.
Travelling within BC:
In the context of 14-day self-isolation restrictions on anyone coming into BC or Canada and the overall continued caution over preventing community spread of COVID-19, Horgan encourages people to enjoy the many spectacular aspects of BC close to home this summer, in local neighbourhoods or in towns close by. He noted that 42,000 British Columbians have booked camping spots already for this summer through the BC Parks website.
Not bending the rules for NHL:
The premier says he has no intention for BC to be “bending the rules” on cross-border travel when it comes to the startup of the National Hockey League and Vancouver being one of three cities on the NHL shortlist of hub cities in Canada for the 2020 season.
Horgan reminded media and British Columbians today that he worked very hard to see that the federal borders to the US would require a 14-day quarantine of anyone coming into Canada during the continued COVID-19 pandemic, and he doesn’t see that protective desire changing anytime soon.
BC is still in a State of Emergency:
The State of Emergency in BC has been extended again, for another two weeks, to June 9 — something Horgan doesn’t expect to see change for a while yet as COVID-19 is still a pandemic and we’ve yet to see the impacts of Phase 3 that begins in June.
This is the longest State of Emergency in BC to date. In 2017 due to extensive wildfires the State of Emergency was in place for 10 weeks.
See Provincial State of Emergency official webpage
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COVID analysis: not becoming numb to the numbers ~ by Mary Brooke (May 23, 2020)