Coronavirus outbreak: B.C. won't ease up lockdown measures until mid-May at the earliest | FULL

B.C. health officials say measures put in place to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus are working, but restrictions won’t be lifted until the middle of May at the earliest.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says officials are looking at a re-opening of the health-care system in May as a first step, but a huge number of barriers still need to be cleared.

“For the health-care system to start ramping up again — outpatient visits, surgeries, diagnosis test increases … these things need to happen in tandem. But we need to do it in a way that does not increase risk of people coming together, spreading the virus and transmitting it,” Henry said.

The province released another set of complex modelling data on Friday that suggests B.C. is flattening the curve when it comes to confirmed COVID-19 cases and is well ahead of the Canadian average.

#GlobalNews #britishcolumbia #coronavirus #covid19 #bcpoli #cdnpoli

[TooBadToBeAway]

Thank-you, Thank-you, Thank-you! I'm so grateful for Dr. Bonnie Henry's competence.and compassion. She's the best for this job and after listening to her every day nearly, it is impossible to imagine someone wilfully going against her policies. It would be like going against an angel. So proud to be a British Columbian today, . and very impressed with the team spirit shown by our entire province. We have been saved from the worst of this pandemic, I don't think I will ever be able to repay her and her fine work.

[cybernitemusic]

Give these people a raise. They’ve done a brilliant job! Thanks to their leadership (especially Bonnie Henry) we are on a good road towards a new normal... a safer normal than what we see elsewhere.

[mariag.]

Excellent briefing, clear data and clear path forward — staying the course with some careful lifting of restrictions and constant monitoring leads to continuous availability of health care with gradually increasing levels of mobility

I’m profoundly grateful for the clear and compassionate leadership Henry and Dix have provided 🤗🌈

[keonihj]

Good work BC!!!! Most especially to those who followed the public health orders intently.

[amydamjanovic]

I’m sure teachers would have zero complaints about smaller class sizes.

[nancyfroment]

Notice whenever there is confusion it is always just chalked up to challenges. In my opinion the ball was dropped back in Jan. Feb. and March. Why were workers going from facility to facility and home care? Working at multiple jobs? Why were not the lessons from SARS not learned? Long before SARS, evidence of actual and potential harm
to the health of Canadians from weaknesses in public health infrastructure was documented. SARS killed 44 Canadians, caused illness in hundreds more, paralyzed a major segment of Ontario’s health care system for weeks and saw in excess of 25, 000 residents of the GTA placed in quarantine. There were Psychosocial effects of SARS on health care workers, patients, and families. The economic shocks had been been felt not only in the GTA, the epicenter of SARS, but across the country. We will be hurting for years to come if not for the rest of our lives. Let's be honest and stop sugar coating this.

[ratlexigton]

Not all Canadians are going to be as passive about being imprisoned in there homes and losing everything they worked their lives to achieve.
Government playing dangerous games.

[jagdeepmann]

something is wrong with people, all they can do is criticise. economy is important but don't act like that its not revivable. we gonna be just fine so the economy. but we should appreciate these guys, they did really good and its still in going.

[vanscotty]

Like most of what she has done, but disagree with lifting the restrictions on medical staff first as it is another example of her being easily mislead by those in her ear. All week, she has been echoing those all over the news telling people to come to the hospital, as they have a lot of staff doing nothing. This plan also helps the medical staff in the community get paid, but few others. The Province is also clearly misleading her to follow their timelines when it should be the other way around. In six months when our economy is unrepairable, the Province will turn around and blame her, saying they followed the incorrect plan of Dr Henry. Her comment this week that people are frustrated about the uncertaintly of their future shows how out of touch she is. Sure, some, but most are frustrated with the here and now, which is to provide for their families.

[G_Ellis]

BC isn't testing enough. Lots of ppl in society with no symptoms...

[ZeroGravity]

This is so impressive, so informative, all the complainers are silent.
Thank you for explaining it as if I was the one to make the final decisions.
I love Canada and the intelligent respectful Canadian way. Stay safe everyone. :)

[knabhishek]

Per capita values in the comment section
Hospitalized / ICU / Deaths
QC: 1076 / 207 / 688
ON: 829 / 245 / 478
BC: 119 / 52 / 78
AB: 60 / 13 / 50
CA(total): 2121 / 533 / 1310

BC: The number of reported cases is an underestimate of the true number of people infected. This is reflected in the higher than expected proportion of cases hosptialised, in ICU and who died (April 17 BCCDC Report).

PS: beware of armchair epidemiologist from the University of Wikipedia. Stay safe everyone!

[jonathanjones]

We should recommend that hair salons and businesses like that use masks or limit the amount of people in the establishment

[bloomy]

I think I’m kinda in love with Dr Henry. She’s so professional, charming, straight forward and so calm.

[CCitis]

Thank you so much for all your hard work during this time.

[mtp]

"Slide #9 Likely source if infection in BC" tells the truth.
If BC took the approach on screening at the borders for temperature and symptoms, finding ways to track/monitor travellers over a 14 day period, and actually isolating any of the confirmed cases until they have two negative tests 24hrs apart, then the majority of the total cases in BC would have been much lower. We won't really have much of a curve to bend.

[konseptikonrekords]

This is ridiculous. How can educated people fall for this claptrap?

[MrDmollinga]

No one is talking about how much worse things are going to be when our economy goes into a depression greater then the 30's...its coming mark my words.
More people will die as a result of the economic and social breakdown.
I am not saying we need to open everything up....but we should be talking about the aftermath, which will be 10x worse.

[dgzgoodwing]

Yes lets all just take Chinas word at face value like how this had no human to human transfer stop helping them lie FFS

[alexaxsen]

There is no lockdown. People were out in droves last night. George Wainborn park was absolutely packed. It was absolutely impossible just to walk my dog. Why can't the rest of you stay home so that those of us forced out can actually do so? Bonnie's useless advice is putting everybody in serious danger.