B.C. to ease pandemic restrictions, provincial travel, indoor activities allowed

Henry said the reopening is based largely on B.C. exceeding targets for minimum vaccine levels, with more than 75 per cent of residents now having received their first shot. Health officials had set a 65 per cent first-dose vaccination rate to move to the second step of the reopening plan, she said.

The second step means indoor seated gatherings to a maximum of 50 people are permitted at venues including movie theatres, banquet halls and live theatre performances, Henry said. High-intensity indoor fitness classes can resume and bars will be able to serve liquor until midnight. Indoor faith gatherings to a maximum of 50 people or up to 10 per cent of the capacity of a place of worship will also be permitted.

But Henry said safety protocols, including mask wearing indoors and physical distancing, remain in place. Health officials will monitor COVID-19 case data as the date approaches for the next step in the reopening plan on July 1.

“We may need to slow going forward depending on what happens, and this next couple of weeks will be very key for that and right now the public health orders are still in place,” she said.

Henry said she is confident B.C. will move onto steps three and four in the plan, but she will monitor COVID-19 transmission rates just in case.

“There are always things that are unknown,” she said. “We are watching very carefully. I don’t expect, with what we know now, we’ll have to go back.”

B.C. recorded 277 new cases over a three-day period, including 68 new infections on Monday, a case count not seen since last August. There were four more deaths, for a total of 1,734 fatalities since the start of the pandemic.

A joint statement released Monday from the provincial health officer and health minister said the government’s target immunization rate is 100 per cent.

Henry said as first-dose vaccine rates reach 85 per cent and higher in B.C. and second shots also increase, the province will continue to better manage the virus and the return to normal will get closer.

“I am absolutely optimistic about our brighter days ahead,” she said. “This will be our summer of hope and healing.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 14, 2021.

Dirk Meissner, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

B.C. to ease pandemic restrictions, provincial travel, indoor activities allowed

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