BC's restrictions beginning to bring down COVID-19 cases

Dec 24 2020, 12:08 am

BC’s COVID-19 restrictions are beginning to stabilize new case numbers, but the province is still at risk of flipping back to dangerous territory.

Dr. Bonnie Henry shared graphs at her modelling update Wednesday showing how new case numbers levelled off in the weeks after she introduced orders banning indoor and outdoor gatherings and advised against non-essential travel.

“As you can see, we have bent our curve slightly,” she said.

BC was seeing more than 800 new cases per day at the beginning of December, but now it’s seeing between 400 and 600 new infections each day.

“We need to be cautious,” Henry said. “It would not take much for us to get back into a danger zone again.”

province of bc

Province of British Columbia

Although BC is not out of the woods yet, Henry she pointed to another encouraging sign that the province’s R-value has dropped below 1 again. That value refers to how many people each patient goes on to infect, and a value above one signals a threat of exponential caseload increases.

modelling

Province of British Columbia

With Christmas two days away, Henry urged British Columbians to keep their celebrations to household members only.

“We want our family and loved ones to be there for the next celebration,” she said. “For the holiday we’re going to have when this pandemic is over.”

Megan DevlinMegan Devlin

+ News
+ Coronavirus
ADVERTISEMENT