B.C. moving to 'better place, rapidly' in pandemic: Dr. Henry

British Columbia’s top doctor says the province is now in a better, transition period with the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, even as restrictions ease in the coming weeks, she said everyone should be prepared for the likelihood of a resurgence of cases this fall.

As hospitalizations continue to decrease, Dr. Bonnie Henry said some public health measures will be relaxed before spring break, but there’s no guarantee restrictions won't return later this year.

“We, hopefully, will be in a good place for the next few months because of the immunity that we have… be we need to be prepared for immunity to wane again and for us to have new approaches and adapt depending on what we see come the fall.”

Although she did not give details, Henry said restrictions and layers of protection would be removed soon but only when the government is confident about safely making the changes based on data related to B.C.’s pandemic, not on what may be happening in other provinces.

“We need to move cautiously and slowly because that is the way we will continue to gain ground and not lose it,” she said, while insisting there is reason to be hopeful.

“I am very optimistic we are moving to a better place rapidly and we’ll have more to say about that very soon.”

At the same time, Health Minister Adrian Dix said health care worker absenteeism continued to move in the right direction, though it remained high.

He said 13,631 workers called in sick last week, down 948 from the previous week and way below the peaks in the 17,000s in January.

In Interior Health, 2,517 workers called in sick last week.

Dix said while the province’s health care system remains challenged by burnout and people leaving the job, non-urgent surgeries that had been postponed are coming back.

“This week, all health authorities… began scheduling and completing postponed surgeries,” Dix said.

Of the 99 surgeries that needed to postponed in the last week, 92 of those were across Interior Health.

Latest numbers

B.C. reported 466 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday. There are 523 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19 (26 fewer than on Monday) and 83 in intensive care (two fewer). There have been no new deaths.

In Interior Health, there are 193 new infections. There are 106 hospitalizations (eight fewer than on Monday) and 22 people are in intensive care (one more than Monday).