New COVID-19 restrictions go into effect in BC on Monday

It was not even a week ago that Dr. Bonnie Henry said she didn’t expect additional restrictions to be put into place in British Columbia ahead of the holidays.

However, the situation has quickly changed with the introduction of the Omicron variant of concern and skyrocketing case counts in BC and beyond.

“The number of cases are going up and going up significantly, and this brings change,” said Henry today.

She explained that it’s becoming very apparent with the trajectory of Omicron that it is overtaking Delta and will quickly become the predominant transmission variant.

The provincial health officer said that the recent transmission is primarily being driven by unstructured social gatherings, like parties, and primarily in young people.

She added that health officials haven't seen severe illness so far, but that's largely due to the affected people being a younger demographic and the protection that's offered by vaccines.

Although early studies are showing that Omicron brings less severe illness with it and could potentially do far less damage on people’s lungs and hearts, Henry said that it’s clear that Omicron is more transmissible.

When cases go up, she noted, the spill over into people that are going to have more severe illness means that hospitalizations will increase as well.

As a result, the Province is putting new COVID-19 restrictions in place in an effort to flatten the recent curve of cases and prevent a surge in hospitalizations.

The following restrictions will take effect at midnight on Monday and extend to Jan. 31 at 11:59 pm:

• Indoor personal gatherings, including rental vacation properties, are limited to the household or resident plus 10 other individuals if they are all vaccinated.
  • If there are unvaccinated members of your family, no gatherings are permitted.
• Sports tournaments are cancelled as the Province continues to see a lot of transmission through these types of events. Individual sports games will be allowed.
• Indoor venues that hold 1,000 people or more are back to 50% capacity and ensure BC Vaccine Card QR codes are being scanned for entry.
• Citing the potential for super spreader events, all organized New Year’s Eve events are cancelled. Restaurants can remain open as usual with no restrictions on the sale of alcohol and people can still go out to a restaurant for a New Year’s dinner with their own party, but no events that encourage mingling.
• Restaurants will go back to seating requirements and restricting movement and mingling between tables at all times.
  • Masks need to be worn when up from a table to use the bathroom or enter/exit a restaurant.
  • Enhance the use of BC Vaccine Card QR code to scan patrons.
• BC Vaccine Card program for organized events will now cover events of all size, not just 50 or more people.
• Retail stores need to have COVID-19 safety plans in place for holiday and Boxing Day sales to avoid crowding. Going out and supporting local is encouraged, but stores need to have a plan in place to make sure it’s done safely.

“These measures will help us to slow the spread of COVID-19 and protect the ones we care about,” said Health Minister Adrian Dix.

“Slowing the spread and keeping each other safe is a cause in which we are all connected. It’s that togetherness that will get all of us through the next days and weeks.”

BC's COVID-19 case rate has nearly doubled over the past week, with 759 cases reported on Thursday compared to a rolling seven-day average of around 360 cases a week ago.

Omicron is driving that spike, health officials said, and even though there are only 135 confirmed cases in BC so far, that number is expected to rise rapidly.