Image Credit: CFJC Today / Kent Simmonds

By Jill Sperling

COVID-19

‘It’s one month’: Health officials urge B.C. residents to adhere to restrictions through April

Apr 6, 2021 | 4:21 PM

KAMLOOPS — It’s been one week of tougher restrictions in B.C. as the province endures a three-week circuit breaker to curb new COVID-19 cases.

April is expected to be a difficult month for many, with businesses and individuals making big sacrifices for the good of others.

“This month of April, this is going to be the hardest of the pandemic so far,” said B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix.

At the same time, variants of concern have been spreading.

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“As you would expect with variants of concern that are more transmissible, they will tend to take over cases, so there will be more of those and fewer of what we call other COVID cases,” Dix said.

In the Thompson-Cariboo region of Interior Health, variant cases are less prevalent, but Medical Health Officer Dr. Carol Fenton says they could easily spread here as well.

“Especially with Kamloops being on the highway, we need to be aware that people may be travelling through and there may be risk or infection from people that we may not know about,” Fenton said. “So, we need to be really vigilant and continue all of our COVID prevention practices.”

Non-essential travel is strongly discouraged by the province and indoor gatherings are not allowed. However, it will be a while before the impact of the Easter weekend is known.

“Incubation period for COVID is usually between four and 14 days,” Fenton said, “so we usually see an increase following gatherings or exposures in the two weeks following. If there was transmission we will watch for that, but I’m hoping because there was some beautiful weather that people were going outside and enjoying the outdoors that we won’t see that.”

Vaccinations are one line of defense against the spread of COVID-19. In Kamloops, approximately 300 people are immunized per day on weekends and 500 per day during the week.

“We did have to add capacity, so this is more than we were expecting and we’re doing really well with it,” Fenton said.

As quickly as the province is able to administer available doses, COVID-19 is rapidly spreading among those not eligible to receive the vaccine and causing more serious illness.

“What we’ve seen is not an increase in hospitalization as the result of more cases, about the same proportion of people are being hospitalized as before.” Dix said. “But, we’re seeing more cases of serious illness, where people see themselves in critical care and need assistance with breathing and so on. Some of those cases are found amongst young people. So, it’s not that it’s changed significantly, but there are simply more young people getting sick.”

For the time being, the province is urging people to adhere to the provincial health orders with hopes of brighter days in the near future.

“It’s one month,” Dix said, “it’s this month of April that we really have to — in the best possible way — do everything we can. It’s us and the vaccines against COVID-19, and this April it needs to be us.”