A large dance party to amplified music on Vancouver’s Kits Beach Friday night has renewed the debate over B.C.’s COVID-19 restrictions, as locals flock outdoors in the warmer weather.
Beryl Pye was out for a bike ride when she spotted the “crazy party,” which she said numbered in the “hundreds.”
Video captured by Pye and other social media users appears to show some of the dancers wearing masks and many keeping their distance from other revelers.
However, the gathering appears to fall afoul of the province’s cap of 10 people from a cohort of close friends or family for any outdoor gatherings.
“There was a guy that had like a speaker that was like going through the crowd and kind of instigating this dance situation … walking up and down the beach with this kind of crown on and a cape looked like what you would see at a festival when people put on costumes,” Pye said.
“The bathroom lineups were crazy. I’ve never seen it like that at Kits Beach ever in my life, just on a regular Friday night.”
On Thursday, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry addressed her order permitting outdoor gatherings, which she said was important to maintain social connections.
Henry said any such gathering should be kept to 10 people or fewer, stressing that no environment is currently risk-free.
“I do think it’s important for us to go outdoors. And I think all of us should be going outdoors every day and making sure that that’s part of how we keep ourselves together,” she said.
“But it should be the same small group of people that you can meet outdoors, keeping your distance and if you’re closer together, wear a mask.”
On Thursday, Henry presented modeling showing that if British Columbians continue with their current level of social interactions, the province could see up to 3,000 new cases per day as more contagious COVID variants spread.
The province is currently reporting an average of over 1,000 new cases per day and the number of people in hospital and intensive care repeatedly set new records this week.
Pye said she’s worried that if people seek to bend the rules on gatherings, the province could be forced to implement stricter restrictions like the controversial lockdown implemented this week by Ontario.
“I don’t want more closures, I don’t want parks to be closed, I want to be able to go outside and safely — you know, we live in a beautiful city, I want to be able to do that,” she said.
“It’s just frustrating. I don’t want the numbers to end up at 3,000 cases a day. And when I look at a scene like that, that’s where we’re heading.”
It’s a concern shared by Vancouver City Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung, who said she feared increased transmission could result in further provincial restrictions.
Those restrictions, she said, would devastate businesses which are barely holding on.
“We’re all human and we’re all feeling it — but imagine if we had to go to more severe measures and go to a fuller lockdown and you couldn’t go and sit on that patio and you couldn’t go out even in a small group of friends and close contacts outside? I think that would be pretty grim,” she said.
“If we ratcheted up and we shut those patios down we would lose a significant number of our restaurants and small businesses in Vancouver, I am absolutely convinced of that,” she said.
With the nice weather, Kirby-Yung said it’s important for people not to get lulled by a false sense of security — and to follow safety protocols even when outdoors.
“Once you get out there and you’re in the sun, I think everybody’s starved for contact from friends and loved ones and that social time. But this just isn’t the time to kind of let our guard down, and it can be really easy to do that once you get out there,” she said.
Asked about the party and how police were handling gatherings amid the warming weather, a spokesperson for Vancouver police said no one called in a complaint, and police did not attend the beach.
The Vancouver Park Board said enforcing COVID-19 restrictions was a provincial responsibility.
In a statement, a spokesperson said rangers would be out over the weekend providing education about COVID-19 restrictions, but that “it is also a personal responsibility of individuals to remain extra vigilant when it comes to social distancing and remaining within their core bubble.”
If rangers encounter a group of people blatantly disregarding public health orders they can call police, the spokesperson said.
Kirby-Yung said she understood rangers were being deployed to Kits Beach on Saturday.
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