Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.'s provincial health officer, often closes out her daily briefings saying, "Be kind, be calm and be safe."
As we enter the third month of the covid-19 pandemic, two themes are emerging. The first is that covid-19 isn’t going anywhere and we’re going to have to learn to live with it and the second, and possibly related, theme is that our mental health is suffering.
Both themes were highlighted by the World Health Organization this week, which said depression and anxiety are on the rise and that children and youth, healthcare workers and women are particularly at risk.
“Social isolation, fear of contagion, and loss of family members is compounded by the distress caused by loss of income and often employment,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization.
In a briefing this week, Michael Ryan, the director of WHO’s emergencies program, said covid-19 may never go away.
“This virus may become an endemic virus in our communities and this virus may never go away,” Ryan said. “HIV has not gone away, but we’ve come to terms with the virus and we’ve found the therapies and we’ve found the prevention methods.”
B.C.’s own Dr. Bonnie Henry, our provincial health officer, said Ryan is a friend of hers and that she shares his concerns.
“We don’t yet know how this virus is going to behave in the future,” Henry said. “There is a possibility, depending on how long immunity to it lasts, that it will continue to circulate for many years. That is something that is top of mind for many of us.”
So, it has been kind of a depressing week.
On the more positive side, B.C.’s new cases are in the single digits most days and our hospitalizations are low. B.C. is preparing to open up, slowly and carefully, next week.
B.C. has 372 active covid-19 cases, down from 650 last week. We’ve now had 135 deaths. Canada now has 73,401 cases and 5,472 people have died.
The changes keep rolling in. Here’s my list for this week:
-B.C. Finance Minister Carole James said a "staggering" number of people are now unemployed. In April, B.C.'s unemployment rate was 11.5 per cent, up from five per cent before covid-19. The province lost 264,000 jobs in April — "an unprecedented number" — making it 396,500 jobs lost since March.
- Canada’s unemployment rate is now 13 per cent, compared to 14.7 per cent in the United States.
- The Arts Club Theatre company cancelled its remaining 2020 season, through the summer. The 2020-21 season is now being reimagined.
- People close to both U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence tested positive for covid-19.
- Three children, including a five-year-old in New York, died from a mysterious ailment affecting children, which may be related to covid-19.
- The Army and Navy department store closed down after 101 years in business.
- Canadian scientists will test a Chinese vaccine against covid-19, starting human trials in Canada. Human trials are already ongoing in China and if successful, the vaccine could be approved for use this fall, the Globe and Mail reported.
-There are reports that the cost of apartment rentals in Vancouver is dropping.
- The Canada-U.S. border has been closed to non-essential travel since March. That's set to expire on May 21, after having already been extended once. Reports say the agreement will be extended another month.
- Germany is beginning to open its borders.
- Preliminary data put out by Statistics Canada did not find any excess deaths in Canada for the first 13 weeks of 2020. Only the province of Alberta had excess deaths.
- The Canadian government announced a one-time payment to seniors to help with covid-19 expenses. Seniors who get Old Age Security will get $300 and those who also get the Guaranteed Income Supplement will get another $200.
- Plywood covering storefronts in downtown Vancouver started to come down this week as some stores started to reopen.
- When asked when driver road tests might open up again, Premier John Horgan said the province is working on it and considering how to make a road test safe for the driver and the evaluator. There may be plexiglass involved.
- There was another racially motivated attack in Vancouver against two Asian women on a bus. Later, it came out that the man who attacked the two women had died of a drug overdose.
- A group of civil rights advocates including the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, have asked the Canadian courts to order the release of prisoners who are not a threat to public safety.
- B.C.’s car insurance corporation – ICBC – reports a 46 per cent reduction in accident claims during covid-19, compared to last year. More than 150,000 people in B.C. have changed their car insurance either cancelling or reducing their coverage.
- A plan to open elementary schools in Montreal next week has been pushed back to the fall. Elementary schools outside Montreal are now open in Quebec, which was the first province to try a full-scale reopening of schools in Canada.
- The Ontario government is voluntarily redeploying some education workers to work in long-term care homes.
- Vancouver City Council plans to cut the police budget by one per cent, due to a projected $152-million loss.
- The reality show Survivor held it’s 40th season, after 20 years on air, this spring. For the announcement of the winner, which is normally a live reunion show with a large audience, the host was in his garage, filming himself, while the contestants appeared using zoom.
Here’s hoping next week brings some good news.
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