This graphic shows the growth of COVID-19 variants of concern in British Columbia. Screenshot from B.C. government powerpoint.
It started with the P.1 variant and reports it was surging in B.C., perhaps more so than anywhere else outside of Brazil, where it was first discovered and where it has wreaked havoc.
Then cases in B.C. started rapidly escalating – rather than staying relatively stable as they did most of the winter, the number of new cases started jumping up by 100 every day. First 600, then 700, and now the province had its first day with more than 1,200 cases.
The province’s public health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, brought in new restrictions in late March, closing indoor dining and banning adult group physical activity, but that doesn’t seem to have made a difference. Doctors started talking publicly about the alarming numbers of patients, including young patients, filling up Canadian ICUS. Teachers continued to call for better protection, including a broader mask mandate and priority vaccines for educators. They wonder why the province has a five-stage plan and how many daily cases it would take to move to a more cautious stage.
But Dr. Henry said more children get COVID-19 when schools are closed than when they are open. She did say that hospitals are seeing more younger people, but said that is because of increasing case numbers overall.
She brought in a new order that will allow WorkSafe BC to close a workplace for 10 days or longer when more than three people have COVID-19 at a workplace and there is evidence that they got it at work.
B.C. will now work on the assumption that everyone with COVID-19 has a variant, because the variants are replacing the original COVID-19. The transmissibility is very high.
“It’s everyone in a household or community or accommodation who is getting ill,” Dr. Henry said. “If anybody in the family is unwell, get tested, do not go to work, do not send your children to school. That is important right now as we’ve seen the rates in our communities take off. This virus is transmitting rapidly.”
She urged everyone to be supportive of healthcare workers.
“All of the people that are keeping people alive and saving lives every day are tired. They are ready for this pandemic to be over,” she said. “They are very concerned about the disheartening signs that we are seeing. That we are seeing hospitalizations increase. That we are seeing whole families need to come in for care, with mother and father being in the ICU and having children being on the COVID ward -- adult children.”
Mostly, she said, it’s hard to see people having parties or flouting the rules from the inside of a hospital.
Here’s the other news from this week:
- The BC Green Party is calling for a three-week lockdown to slow surging COVID-19 cases in B.C. including moving school online for most students and closing non-essential businesses. “British Columbians are angry, they are anxious, and they are scared. It is not enough to ask those who are still listening to get through the next couple of months,” BC Green leader Sonia Furstenau said in a news release. “We urgently need a shift in government response. Instead of bracing for the impact of rising variants, we can mitigate it right now.”
- Scientists still don’t know if vaccinated people can spread COVID-19, the New York Times reports.
- Some countries, like Israel and the UK, are implementing or discussing using vaccination certificates to open up travel or concerts or dining out to people who are vaccinated.
- Canada’s top doctor Theresa Tam says young, healthy people need intensive care quickly with COVID-19 variants of concern, the Globe and Mail reports.
- Experts say B.C. is undercounting COVID-19 variant-of-concern cases, the Vancouver Sun reports.
- Ontario introduced a four-week lockdown this week, including closing all non-essential retail stores for in-person shopping, Reuters reports. People there will have to stay home except for essential reasons like exercise, buying groceries or getting a COVID-19 vaccine.
- A 16-year-old has died from COVID-19 in Montreal, the Canadian Press reports. The teenager’s gender was not revealed and he or she is thought to be the youngest person in Canada to have died from COVID-19.
- At least 25 Vancouver Canucks players and staff are on COVID-19 protocols, meaning either they have tested positive for the virus or are under self-isolation. The team confirmed the infections were caused by a variant strain.
- British Columbia’s intensive care units could fill up by mid-May if restrictions are not increased, the Vancouver Sun reports.
- The head of the European Medicines Agency says there is a link between very rare blood clots on the brain and the AstraZeneca vaccine, Reuters reports.
- One-third of COVID-19 sufferers experience neurological or mental disorders, most commonly anxiety and depression, Reuters reports.
- Anti-bodies created by COVID-19 vaccination can be spread to babies via breast milk, offering babies protection from the disease, the New York Times reports.
- The B.C. government is providing financial support to businesses affected by the most recent restrictions, the Vancouver Sun reports.
- Britain could reach “herd immunity” by next week, with 73 per cent of the population considered immune, either through infection or vaccination, the Vancouver Sun reports.
- Dr. Henry said that B.C. will no longer routinely screen for variants of concern, but will monitor for vaccine failures and escape variants, which are variants that may not respond as well to vaccinations.
“This virus in its many forms will take any chance it can,” Dr. Henry said. Don’t give it a chance.
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