B.C.’s COVID-19 restrictions on gyms, fitness centres, bars and other facilities are set to expire Tuesday, and business owners are waiting to see if the government will lift, extend, or amend them.
Those businesses have all been closed since Dec. 22 in a bid to curb the spread of the Omicron variant. Many of them have been surviving on government supports.
Initially, the restrictions were set to lift at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 18. However, Monday afternoon the province removed that end time from the document.
One gym owner told Global News earlier he plans to open Tuesday morning.
“We’re just going to open on Tuesday morning and (will) just have to go by feel until we hear something,” Nick Johnson, owner of Anytime Fitness in Port Coquitlam, said.
“That is incredibly frustrating and I haven’t slept all weekend,” he added. “There is a lot of anxiety that has evolved around that. We are trying to play by the rules, but we feel like, as a business, we have been singled out.”
Based on the latest modelling data revealed Friday, the number of cases as well as the positivity rate appear to be set to decline in B.C.
However, the number of people being admitted to hospital with COVID is expected to increase.
“Our modelling shows between Jan. 15 and 22, we expect the peak of admission in hospital,” provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said Friday.
B.C. reported a record 646 people who’d been admitted to hospital on Friday.
Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix are scheduled to hold their weekly briefing on Tuesday with the latest details.
The province will report three days of case numbers and hospitalizations on Monday afternoon.
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