Wednesday April 29, 2020 | BC [Updated April 30, 2020]
by Mary Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
Plans for beginning to loosen up on Provincial Health Officer orders in BC will be announced next week, said Premier Horgan earlier today, and Dr Henry an hour or so later expressed her enthusiasm for that. But of course with everyone will physically distancing and following protocols for frequent hand washing, and staying home if ill.
The curve has been flattened to a great degree in BC, which is why we can begin to poke our heads out of the all the many socioeconomic foxholes that we’ve retreated to during the imposed self-isolation. But we’ve also been spooked — not just the fact that the virus itself is easily transmitted and can be deadly, but because the mental and emotional trauma of being cheerfully coerced into full retreat away from workplaces and people has had real impacts in most if not all aspects of our lives.
Today Dr Henry pretty much stuck to the COVID-case facts, with more of the dynamics of socieconomic interface to come on Monday.
Phases:
The BC Government’s first phase of the ‘new normal’ being announced next week, will include a framework for adjustment beyond the initial impact of COVID in our communities, economy and society.
Without treatments or a vaccine (either of which is expected not any time this year), COVID-19 will be an added layer of viral worry in the Fall 2020 through Winter 2021 flu season, which is just around the corner. Even still, medical science still can’t tell us if the COVID-19 virus will retreat during the warmer weather of summer.
So no one knows how much of a short-term reprieve we will get this summer, or what movement in our society and economy will look like this summer. Though today Dr Henry outlined possibilities for more time outdoors — still with 6-foot distancing, however.
After the first phase of getting into the ‘new normal’ is announced, Dr Henry will be inviting various sectors of the economy to make suggestions about their industry within parameters set by the Provincial Health Officer. That starts next week, and for many people, businesses and industry sectors, and the education system — who are anxious to see life go on — the relative forward-movement of thoughts to the new normal will be offer some sense of relief. Nonetheless, there will naturally some trepidation, along with much planning before any reasonable degree of execution of new processes.
It is human nature to be cautious after being pushed into retreat. The government realizes this, and does not expect (nor find desirable from a public health point of view) to see people flooding back into activities as we knew them to be in times pre-COVID. Physical distancing is with us now going forward, for some length of time so long as there is no vaccine or known level of community immunity.
Health Minister Dix on moving forward:
Health Minister Dix also commented on the Premier’s plans for the coming weeks to “address BC’s renewal…to open the economy more than we are now.”. Dix said: “We need a plan and a full buy-in from British Columbians.”
“We’ve had relative success in flattening the curve, said Dix, saying it’s “time for renewal” and that everyone needs to play a part in implementing it. “That’s what got us to this point, by holding to a commitment to rules (such as physical distancing). and staying all.” He said that BC can now “build on the success we achieved… safely and confidently”.
Dix repeated his closing theme of most of his media appearances on COVID-19, appealing to current comforts and to hope: “We’re in this for the people we know, the ones we don’t know, and the ones we will meet in the future”.
COVID-19 stats in BC at April 29:
New test positive cases today reported as 34, for a total of 2,087 people in BC to date. The breakdown by health authority: 811 in Vancouver Coastal Health, 941 in Fraser Health, 120 in Island Health, 169 in Interior Health, and 46 in Northern Health.
The number of long-term care homes with active outbreaks is up again — standing at 24 active locations (long term care, acute care or assisted living),. Of those, two are new (each with one person testing positive) — at Clayton Heights and Langley Lodge in Fraser Health. One of those had been previously declared over but is back on the list.
Dr Henry reported that 13 long-term care outbreaks are now over, with that list now including Kootenay Village in Interior Health, where there have been no cases for the last two incubation periods.
Overall, 404 people in long-term care have tested positive for COVID-19 (252 residents affected and 152 staff).
Continue ongoing testing and investigations at community outbreak locations include these tallies: 50 people at Superior Poultry in Coquitlam, and 42 at United Poultry in Vancouver.
“Investigations are ongoing in those two areas and a number of other workplaces where there is potential for transmission,” said Dr Henry today.
There is no change in the number of people who have tested positive at the federal Mission Institution correctional centre in the BC Interior: 120 persons tested positive (108 inmates, 12 staff).
In BC today there are 89 people hospitalized with COVID-19 of which 35 are in ICU.
In BC, 1,305 people who tested positive for COVID-19 have fully recovered.
Deaths reported today April 29:
Today four more deaths due to COVID-19 were reported by the Provincial Health Officer, and also by Health Minister Adrian Dix who — together with Dr Henry — always expresses condolences and a reminder of how families and the broader community including health care workers are impacted by such deaths.
The death tally is now 109 in BC. All four of today’s reported deaths were among seniors and elders “in our outbreaks” in long-term care homes, said Dr Henry.
The one death in Interior Health was that of “a man in his 70s who had been in hospital for some time, who had acquired COVID-19 while outside of Canada”, the Provincial Health Officer said.