"B.C. will likely remain under strict pandemic-related restrictions until at least the summer, the province’s top health officials said Tuesday.
... then we need to start preparing ourselves for the potential of a second wave in the fall,” she said.
The virus will remain a risk until either a vaccine is developed, she added, or enough people get sick for there to be broad immunity in the community.
Experts have say a vaccine is up to 18 months away.
“I don’t believe we will have all of these restrictions for that period of time. What I do know is this is a critical part of our first wave,” said Henry.
She said the severity of that wave and how it affected public health measures would depend on how well people complied with the current restrictions such as staying home, avoiding gatherings and remaining two metres apart.
Health Minister Adrian Dix said the chance of public health orders being lifted before the end of May or early weeks of June was “little to none.”
Henry said once this current epidemic wave had passed, the province can begin to think about ways to reduce restrictions and move back to focusing on containing individual imported cases and outbreak clusters of the virus.
...The total number of B.C. cases is unknown, as some symptomatic people have been told to assume they have the virus and self-isolate.
...B.C. has faced its own shortage of protective gear, with the province looking at ways to reduce usage, and even re-use some items.
On Monday, Health Minister Adrian Dix said the province had received a shipment of one million masks, but continued to face stiff international competition as it looked to source more gear.
https://globalnews.ca/news/6756991/bc-coronavirus-update-march-31/
... then we need to start preparing ourselves for the potential of a second wave in the fall,” she said.
The virus will remain a risk until either a vaccine is developed, she added, or enough people get sick for there to be broad immunity in the community.
Experts have say a vaccine is up to 18 months away.
“I don’t believe we will have all of these restrictions for that period of time. What I do know is this is a critical part of our first wave,” said Henry.
She said the severity of that wave and how it affected public health measures would depend on how well people complied with the current restrictions such as staying home, avoiding gatherings and remaining two metres apart.
Health Minister Adrian Dix said the chance of public health orders being lifted before the end of May or early weeks of June was “little to none.”
Henry said once this current epidemic wave had passed, the province can begin to think about ways to reduce restrictions and move back to focusing on containing individual imported cases and outbreak clusters of the virus.
...The total number of B.C. cases is unknown, as some symptomatic people have been told to assume they have the virus and self-isolate.
...B.C. has faced its own shortage of protective gear, with the province looking at ways to reduce usage, and even re-use some items.
On Monday, Health Minister Adrian Dix said the province had received a shipment of one million masks, but continued to face stiff international competition as it looked to source more gear.
https://globalnews.ca/news/6756991/bc-coronavirus-update-march-31/
