Super Bowl parties not allowed anywhere in BC, says Dr. Bonnie Henry
The current province-wide restrictions are in effect until Friday, but go ahead and cancel your Super Bowl plans.
That was the message from Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, who says she will be providing an update about the orders on Friday. Super Bowl LV is scheduled to take place this Sunday at 3:30 pm PT, between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs.
“I am calling on everybody right now, hold off on the Super Bowl celebrations this year,” said Dr. Henry during today’s media briefing. “You should not be planning — whether it’s at home, in a bar, a restaurant — viewings of the Super Bowl [with people not from your household].”
“If we are not able to control this and start seeing spread again, we can undo all the good work that we have done. We need to respect the staff and not put them at risk, stay small, stay apart, keeping everyone safe, so that we can keep our bars, our restaurants, our retail spaces, our workplaces open.”
Basically, follow the rules, particularly as new COVID-19 variants threaten to become a much larger factor in the coming weeks and months.
“Right now it’s important for us to maintain our precautions that we have in place so that we’re not transmitting widely in our communities, until we can get a better sense of where these variants are, how they’re spreading, and protect each other from them,” said Dr. Henry. “This also reminds us that gatherings of any size in our homes, or elsewhere, are very high risk right now and should not be happening.”
Dr. Henry said that while cases have decreased in school-aged children and older people, cases have gone up in the 19-40 age group. Some of those cases were related to workplace exposures, Dr. Henry said, but “many” were caused from social gatherings.
Minister of Health Adrian Dix described Super Bowl parties as events “almost designed for the spread of COVID-19.”
“This is the year to watch the Super Bowl game with people living in your household and only those people,” said Dix.
Today BC reported 1,158 new cases of COVID-19 since Friday, along with 21 more deaths.
“What each of us does matters,” said Dr. Henry. “We need to stay apart, stay small, and stay local, as we get through these next few weeks, and get into spring. There are brighter days ahead.”
Dr. Henry did offer some hope for the future concerning the Stanley Cup Final, which is taking place in July this year.
“We’ll be in a different place in July.
“I hope.”
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