A group of doctors who called for stricter measures in B.C. say they are encouraged by what they are seeing when it comes to the latest COVID-19 numbers in the province.
It has been two months since physicians at Royal Columbian Hospital warned that B.C. could be on track with Italy if certain restrictions were not put in place.
They said hospitals would be overwhelmed if drastic action was not taken.
Doctors now say they are impressed that B.C. is flattening the curve.
But they are still concerned that measures may be eased too quickly as B.C. starts to reopen this week.
“As long as people are reasonable and practical about it, I think we can do this,” Dr. Gerald Da Roza, head of medicine at Royal Columbian Hospital, said.
“People just have to be sensible. Relaxing the measures does not mean you go around hugging everyone and having huge gatherings.”
Da Roza said he thinks British Columbians have done a good job of social distancing and following the province’s orders to stop the spread of the virus.
In B.C. there have been 2,428 cases of the novel coronavirus confirmed in the province.
One hundred and forty-one people have died from the virus. Forty-nine people remain in hospital with 11 people in the ICU.
In total, 1,908 people have now fully recovered from the virus.
Some areas of B.C. have been given the green-light to reopen starting this week. This includes retail stores, hair salons, restaurants and indoor gyms.
“If, at the end of the day, people did observe those restrictions we were advocating for and also the province is advocating for and the rates were low, well some might say we overreacted (by writing the letter),” Da Roza told CKNW.
“But my response to that is, ‘how do you know?’ Finding the exact middle is very challenging. So you’d almost overreact and have numbers like we do.”