While British Columbians are no doubt excited to begin expanding their social circles come mid-May, Dr. Bonnie Henry says it's important to start slow and continue to be cautious.
Wednesday, Premier John Horgan announced the province would be taking its first steps to ease off some COVID-19 restrictions, beginning after the Victoria Day long weekend. The plan includes reopening a variety of businesses, under new guidelines to reduce the risk of spreading the virus, along with allowing people to spend more time with others.
While no orders had been made to stop people from socializing — outside of restricting events and gatherings larger than 50 people — Provincial Health Officer Dr. Henry has consistently urged people to stay home and stick to hanging out with those in the same household. That messaging is changing come mid-May.
“Expand your circle, in New Zealand they've been talking about 'double your bubble,'” Dr. Henry said during Thursday's daily press conference.
“Don't make it two people one night, and four people who are different the next night. What we want to do is make sure that we increase our social connections with the people who are close to us, but that we are very mindful that if we have connections, we are then connected with their connections, and that increases our risk.”
Additionally, those who spend their time with elderly people, or with those who are immunocompromised, should think twice about getting too social.
“If I am somebody who has an elder who's living with me, then I want to be more cautious about what I'm doing or if I'm going back to work and my children are going to daycare, or they're going to spend time with their grandparents, then maybe we don't have them have playdates with other children right now,” Dr. Henry said. “We still need to be cautious, this is not going back to where we were in December where we had multiple mixing and congregating. We still want to keep close.”
While B.C. has done well in “flattening the curve” and reducing transmissions over the past two months, allowing for the phased-in reduction in restrictions, the risk of a spike in transmissions remains until a vaccine is developed. A “second wave” of cases in the fall is of particular concern.
“Maybe there won't be a second wave, but every other pandemic in recorded history has had at least two waves, some more,” Dr. Henry said.
“Whether the second wave will be more severe than the first, whether there'll be a series of smaller waves, I don't know. I don't think anybody knows ... What I do know is we need to keep putting the pressure on this virus to make sure it doesn't take off and that means we can't expand our circles too much in the coming weeks and months.”
But for those needing some more social interaction in their lives, some reprieve is coming in the next couple of weeks.
“Hug your grandparents if they're 'your people,' hug your friends if you haven't seen them, the friends that you've chosen to be each other's bubble, and of course, hug your family, your household, every day,” Dr. Henry said.
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