Here's who you can include your immediate household bubble in BC

As COVID-19 case numbers in BC continue to remain high, health officials have now expanded a health order banning indoor and outdoor private gatherings with people outside one’s household.

Previously, only Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health residents were forbidden from hosting small gatherings with people outside their household. Now the order has been expanded to the whole province.

“Delay inviting over people for social events for the next two weeks, particularly in indoor spaces,” Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said on Thursday.

According to the province, a person’s immediate household is “the people you spend the most time with and are physically close to.”

These are the people who are part of your regular routine and include your household members, immediate family, a close friend or the people you come into “regular close contact with,” like a co-parent who lives outside the household.

• See also:
  • BC health officials ask travellers to postpone recreational trips
  • New health order means mandatory masks for all restaurant patrons
  • BC health officials suspend all indoor HIIT, hot yoga, and spin classes
  • All community gatherings and events banned in BC for next two weeks
  • Masks now mandatory in all public indoor and retail spaces in BC

For others, “their core bubble may contain a partner, relative, friend or co-parent who lives in a different household.”

Your immediate household can count as:

• Your immediate family
• A group of people who live in the same dwelling. For example:
  • If you have a rental suite in your home, the suite is a separate household
  • If you live in an apartment or house with roommates, you are all members of the same household

What if you live alone?

If you live alone, you cannot host gatherings. However, you are allowed to see members of what you consider your “immediate household” (see definition above). You can see these individuals at home or at a restaurant.

What about walking with someone outside your household?

Going for a walk “isn’t considered a social gathering,” but residents are asked to remain “vigilant” to ensure the walk doesn’t “turn into a group of people gathering outside,” said officials.

More information about BC’s updated restrictions can be found here.