"Certainly possible" that second wave of pandemic is starting in BC: Dr. Henry

With the number of coronavirus cases continuing to rise in the province, BC’s Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry conceded it is “certainly possible” that the second wave of the pandemic is beginning in BC.

Her comments come after Quebec health officials said this week that the second wave has started in that province.

“It’s certainly possible,” said Henry during a press conference. “We certainly are in a resurgence.”

By comparison, however, she stressed that Quebec “was seeing quite a rapid increase in the numbers over a short period of time,” whereas in BC, “we’ve had a gradual increase in our numbers over time, and it’s slowly rising to a number that we would prefer not to have.”

For her part though, Henry said she thinks “it’s slightly semantics to say whether it’s a second wave or not.”

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That being said, “we’re watching a number of different indicators, including numbers of cases of course, but also how many of them are linked, how many are not being able to be linked to known cases or clusters, we look at our hospitalizations and our ICU cases, as well,” she furthered.

And “the numbers that we’re seeing now are similar to our first wave which we managed to suppress very effectively here in BC, and I believe we can continue to keep this low and slow, as well, as we move into the fall,” said Henry.

However, “it could be a second wave, if you want to call it that,” she said. “I think we are in this… for a long haul, and we need to find that balance of being able to carry out activities that are important for our health and wellbeing of our communities… as well as maintaining our control over cases of COVID-19.