2021-08-06 BC

Press Briefing

The briefing focused on mitigation measures for the Central Okanagan, where 60% of the province’s cases are. I want to know what we’re doing about the OTHER 40%, but I guess I have to wait.

Of course, everybody emphasized that everybody needs to get vaccinated.

DrH said that this is driven mostly by unvaccinated 20-40 year olds, and 80% of the cases are Delta strain / 20% are Gamma strain.

The mitigation measures are similar to what we used to have all over.

  • <50 people at outdoor personal gatherings (e.g. birthday parties),
  • <=5 five people at indoor personal gatherings (or one household),
  • indoor organized seated gatherings limited to 50 people and must have a COVID safety plan,
  • outdoor organized gatherings limited to 50 people and must have a COVID safety plan,
  • bars and nightclubs closed,
  • restaurants back to limitations on groups (<=6 people, liquor service stops at 10pm),
  • casinos can keep going but must comply with restaurant guidance,
  • low-intensity gym activities can still happen with capacity limits, but high-intensity group activities suspended now,
  • limit to 5 people at vacation rentals,
  • mask mandate continues for indoor public places (<- enforceable by bylaw officers).

If you have travel planned for this weekend already, we strongly recommend that you reconsider. If you are already there, the party restrictions apply immediately.

For events planned this week, ensure that you have safety plans in place. Unvaxxed people should not attend, you should wear masks and stay seated. Gather the names of people who attend these events. Events and gathering orders will be enforced starting Monday; all others will be enforced starting today.

They strongly recommend not travelling to the Central Okanagan. Monitor yourself for symptoms and get tested right away if you have symptoms.

They reminded people that the dose1 to dose2 minimum interval has been dropped to 4 weeks in the Central Okanagan.

Variants

According to the weekly VOC report, 95% of the samples tested were Delta variant.

Vaccines

We are continuing to vax. From the federal government’s vaccine page, first doses:

and dose 2:

Statistics

+464 cases, +0 deaths, +5,181 first doses, +22,861 second doses.

Currently 52 in hospital / 24 in ICU, 2,411 active cases, 147,627 recovered.

first dosessecond doses
of adults82.7%71.0%
of over-12s81.8%68.9%
of all BCers74.4%62.7%

We have 673,376 doses in fridges; we’ll use it up in 21.5 days at last week’s rate. We’ve given more doses than we’d received by 17 days ago.

We have 628,920 mRNA doses in fridges; we’ll use it up in 20.1 days at last week’s rate. We’ve given more mRNA doses than we’d received by 17 days ago.

91.5% of the people who had gotten a first dose by 7 weeks ago have already gotten a second dose.

84.2% of the people who have gotten a first dose have gotten a second dose.

Charts