Image Credit: Flickr / Government of BC

By James Peters

COVID-19

B.C. to move to Phase 2 in restart plan Tuesday

Jun 14, 2021 | 10:54 AM

VICTORIA — B.C. will lift certain restrictions put in place to battle the COVID-19 pandemic Tuesday (June 15), moving to the second phase of its re-opening plan.

Premier John Horgan announced the shift at a news conference Monday morning.

“This means we’re going to be seeing more people who we care about, visiting more places that we want to go and see, and we’ll be safely celebrating the major milestones that we’ve missed over the past 15 months,” said Horgan.

Phase Two of the plan allows the following activities:

• Recreational travel within the province
• Outdoor personal gatherings of up to 50 (e.g. birthday parties, backyard barbecues, block parties, etc.)
• Indoor personal gatherings of up to five people or one other household
• Outdoor seated organized gatherings of up to 50, with a safety plan
• Indoor seated organized gatherings of up to 50, with a safety plan
• Dining (indoor or outdoor) for groups up to six — not restricted to one household
• Liquor service allowed until midnight
• Indoor, high-intensity group exercise (reduced capacity)
• Outdoor spectators up to 50 at sporting events

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For a more complete list of changes, check this site.

When provincial health officials laid out restart plans in May, they noted the dates for starting each phase would rely on positive trends for case counts, hospitalization rates and vaccination uptake. June 15 was designated the earliest potential date for moving to Phase Two.

Both Horgan and Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry noted public health orders remain in place – and it’s still important to stay in our own space.

“Several fundamental layers of protection will remain in place through [Phase Two],” said Horgan. “You’re still going to have to wear a mask in indoor public spaces and current safety measures and protocols for businesses will remain in place until we move to Phase Three. Personal gatherings inside your homes should still remain small for now and we need to make sure we stick to one household or five people.”

“Physical distancing and giving others space is also still required,” added Henry. “We need to recognize that not everybody is at the same place right now and we need to respect their ability to stay away from others right now.”

The next shift, which would see most restrictions lifted, is scheduled to occur on July 1 at the earliest.

Henry noted B.C. feels confident it is prepared for an increase in cases of the so-called Delta variant of COVID-19, which has proved challenging in many jurisdictions including the United Kingdom, and will not need to reverse course on its re-opening.

“I don’t expect, with what we know now, we’ll have to go back, but we may need to slow going forward, depending on what happens,” said Henry. “These next couple of weeks will be very key for that. Right now, the public health orders are still in place. All of those things, other than the changes we’ve made today, are still in place.

“We are going back, as we have been all along, to making sure that we have strong resources to continue to follow every single case of people who are infected with COVID-19 here in B.C. and we have that. The testing, tracing, tracking that we have been doing all along continues to be an important part of how we can reopen safely.”