As other provinces move to partial or total lockdowns due to surging cases of COVID-19, B.C. health officials confirm additional restrictions won’t be implemented for the moment.
It’s about “minimizing social disruption,” Dr. Bonnie Henry said Tuesday in the province’s first pandemic briefing of the new year.
“Case and contact tracing are no longer reactionary measures that are able to work to help us contain this,” she said.
“It means that all of us have to be proactive in how we prevent ourselves from getting sick but also how we prevent transmission for others.”
Omicron is now the dominant strain of COVID-19 in B.C., representing more than 80 per cent of all cases, the provincial health officer confirmed.
Henry warned businesses to expect up to a third of their employees to become infected in the latest wave of the pandemic, and said the onus will be on them to implement rigorous safety plans.
“I do think it is over to the sector now, it’s not me who can order these,” she said.
“From the very beginning, public health orders are there as a last resort, when we want to make sure people are absolutely doing them, and we want to do it in what we call the least restrictive means.”
It’s a shift in the province’s approach to the pandemic — relying on British Columbians to “default to less not more during this risk period.”
Meanwhile, Ontario has banned indoor dining, shuttered schools until Jan. 17, restricted indoor gatherings to five people and outdoor gatherings to 10.
Quebec has implemented its second curfew of the pandemic.
In December, B.C. announced a delay of one week in the start of the school year for most students to give staff more time to prepare safety plans.
The province’s current set of public health restrictions will be in place until Jan. 18 at the earliest.
Henry said she has put in place the orders that are necessary to curb the spread, but the rest — including distancing, masking and cutting down on the social calendar — will be up to British Columbians.