BC health officials to hold COVID-19 briefing later today

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and BC Health Minister Adrian Dix will be holding a COVID-19 briefing at 1 pm today.

While there was no specific topic mentioned in the press release announcing the briefing, there are several things that BC health officials could cover today.

Among them could be an update on BC’s rapid testing program, and possibly some clues into the health orders and COVID-19 restrictions that still remain in effect in the province.

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At the last COVID-19 briefing, Henry and Dix unveiled BC’s rapid testing strategy. The initial stock of rapid tests would be reserved for certain groups, and we may see when more people could access them.

Over the last couple of weeks, Henry has alluded to the idea that BC would be reviewing some of the health orders that are currently in effect.

Whether that pertains to the BC Vaccine Card or the ongoing mask mandate remains to be seen, but Henry may provide an update on those topics nonetheless.

BC has also made several adjustments to its daily COVID-19 reports. The last major change involved no longer reporting on active cases or people leaving isolation.

We will likely get an update on hospitalizations and the general trajectory of COVID-19 in the province.

State of COVID-19 in BC

Things are trending in the right direction for the province.

BC has fared well over the last few weeks when it comes to the daily case count, as well as hospitalizations.

After hospitalizations peaked around 1,000, BC is now closer to 500 COVID-positive people in hospital. ICU admissions have also fallen below 90.

There have still been a lot of COVID-19 related deaths in recent weeks, and just yesterday BC reported another 22 deaths since Friday.

You can view the 1 pm briefing here.