B.C. health minister explains why specific locations of COVID-19 cases are not disclosed

Dix stressed the fact that COVID-19 could be in any and every community in B.C.

“I think the message in the Interior and everywhere else though is this can be in any community,” Dix said. “There’s often a discussion ‘Well where are the cases?’ and everything else — well they can be in every community in B.C. so that means it’s critical right now, especially in communities like Kamloops… that we be 100 per cent all-in staying physically apart, staying home when we’re sick, and when people return from those trips that you talk about they simply have to be in quarantine for 14 days.”

The province has released specific locations of cases in exceptional situations — like an outbreak at the Lynn Valley Care Home in North Vancouver that has led to multiple fatalities. When asked about a possible COVID-19 exposure at a seniors’ community living facility in Kamloops, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said she couldn’t confirm any details.

“I don’t know the details about that property, no, we report outbreaks when they’re in a facility,” Henry said. “We have a protocol for that that we’ve had for many years so if it’s a longterm care home or acute care hospital or one of the facilities that we run, so I may not be aware of the details if it’s in a community setting.”

Interior Health officials confirmed to CFJC Today last week that they had been in contact with a number of residents at RiverBend Manor who may have been exposed to a confirmed COVID-19 case.

The province’s approach to releasing the locations of confirmed COVID-19 cases is to only release the health authority region in which that person lives as opposed to the name of the city. Dix said there’s a reasoning behind that.

“The reason we’ve taken the approach is two-fold — one, assume it’s in your city. Assume it’s in your city. Because it could be in any city in B.C.,” Dix reiterated. “We don’t release the names of people who have the flu or anything else, we don’t do that even though it’s contagious as well. If you rest at home, you self-isolate, you can recover.

“We want people to talk to us, not to feel like they might be targetted if they talk to us, but to come forward to contact their doctor, to contact public health, to contact 8-1-1 about symptoms and to engage with the healthcare system and take their responsibility seriously. And that means, yes, protecting their privacy.”

Interior Health graphics
Infogram

_{*Data provided by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control’s March 27 summary report.}

Dix added that out of the 94 COVID-19 cases in the Interior Health Authority as of Monday — 19 have recovered and are out of self-isolation.

According to the BC Centre for Disease Control, 12 people overall have been hospitalized with COVID-19 in the Interior Health region, and the median age of patients in the area is 44 years old. The median age for the rest of the province is 53 years old.

Dix says the province has prepared for the worst in terms of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In all health authorities we’re going to be announcing extra sites to increase our acute care capacity, our hospital capacity. Right now across the system we have 4,233 empty beds which tells you what we feel we need to be prepared for,” Dix says. “Put that in context, in Interior Health which typically runs this time of year about 102 per cent of capacity… they’re running at 63 per cent occupancy overall and 56 per cent of critical care occupancy.”

Dix said across Interior Health, there are 528 empty beds.

“We’ve seen some positive effects from the actions taken so far in what we’re seeing in British Columbia, but we need to do more, we need to be 100 per cent now,” he said. “I think when people look at what’s happening in Italy and look at what’s happening in New York, look at what’s happening in Detroit and look what’s happening in Seattle which is a community not unlike many of ours in British Columbia, I think they’re going to be 100 per cent all in and we need them to be.”

QUESTION AND ANSWER:

_{*Some questions and answers have been condensed for clarity.}

CFJC Today: Is BC considering any restrictions on interprovincial travel at this time?

Dix: I think what we’re saying to people is don’t travel unnecessarily, and that’s true intraprovincial and interprovincial. I think people should consider in every day life whether they need to make an extra trip, whether they need to go to a second grocery store if they can’t find what they want in the first grocery store… I don’t think you’re going to see us not allowing people to come here from say Alberta or Saskatchewan, within Canada I don’t think you’re going to see that. But I don’t think people should travel unnecessarily or should travel for vacation right now even within Canada. I think it’s a good time to stay close to home… I think the key right now is really just stay as much as possible close to where you live, to do essential trips, if you have work that you have to do or you have to go into work and do that, but to apply physical distancing from one another, I think those are the things we have to do.

CFJC Today: Several provinces have began limiting gatherings to smaller numbers like groups of five. Why hasn’t B.C. reassessed the “50” number?

Dix: There’s always options to choose other numbers. There are. I think what we’re saying is pretty straightforward and people should, if you’re going out and you’re going out to the park, stay apart from one another so that the distancing should apply in every single case. So the “50” is a provincial health order. But that doesn’t mean that people should go to say a church event with 35 people, I mean I think everybody has to use common sense right now, and not put their own loved ones at risk. Not put their families at risk. Not put their friends at risk. Not put elderly people at risk and limit as much as possible all of their activities, things that are essential and otherwise stay at home… What we want to do as much as possible is try as much as possible not to allow that to climb, and that means following the rules of course. That doesn’t mean having an event with 48 people and people also know what’s right.

CFJC Today: What is your message to people who are not taking this situation as seriously as they should be? What’s your message to people who are having a tough time mentally during this situation?

Dix: To the first group I say it’s not too late to join the fight. These are orders and they’re enforceable, so it’s not allowed to violate some of these orders, it’s not allowed if you’ve gone on a trip and not go into 14 days of self-isolation, that’s not allowed. But if you care about your family, if you care about your grandmother, if you care about your grandfather or your mother or your father or your friends, then this is your responsibility as a citizen… So I ask them, I say it without judgement, if someone up to today has not done everything they should, well today’s a good day to start… And to those who are having a tough time — look, this is unprecedented. In my lifetime, I’m 55 years old, I haven’t seen anything like this… What the people in B.C. have done has had an effect, and it’s a huge sacrifice — it is for children, it is for workers, people are sacrificing incomes and businesses, look around, everybody’s sacrificing, and we’ve got to find ways to stay in touch with one another and to learn to make this work together. But I get it. For many people this is an anxious moment because they’re worried. They have other health issues and it’s anxious for them. And some of us are just anxious, it’s hard for many of us to be at home, and it’s the opposite of what we usually tell people. We usually… have all kinds of programs so that seniors participate in the community. You’ve got some of the best organizations in the world in Kamloops doing that. Now we’re asking people to stay home, to stay isolated. It’s not what we want to do, it’s not who we are as human beings — we’re social beings, but right now this is what we have to do to help each other and to help everyone we know.

by Ashley Legassic

B.C. health minister explains why specific locations of COVID-19 cases are not disclosed

QUESTION AND ANSWER:

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