BC's COVID-19 Curve Has Flattened & Officials Will Lift Some Restrictions In May

According to officials in the province, B.C.’s COVID-19 curve has flattened. Officials are now looking at starting to lift some restrictions in the middle of May. The announcement was made during a live briefing on Friday, April 17. 

On Friday, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix released a joint statement regarding COVID-19 in B.C. 

In their second batch of case modelling, it shows that there has been a significant improvement to the COVID-19 projections that were originally released in March. 

The Cowichan Valley Citizen is reporting that Henry's research suggests that B.C.’s case rate and actual intensive care unit admission rate is closer to South Korea’s success in controlling the spread. 

It was noted that the province is much better off than other places like Quebec and Ontario. 

“Our actual case rates and hospital and ICU admission rates have been far below what could have been based on other jurisdictions’ experience and data,” Henry said. 

“We are experiencing a slowing in our rate of new diagnosis over the last few days, and a stabilization of the number of cases we have in hospital and ICU."

Henry explained that officials are now beginning to think about lifting restrictions, although it wouldn’t take place until the middle of May. 

On a presentation slide about the confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported by date, Henry noted that measures put in place by government officials are the reason for the flattening of the curve. This includes social distancing and self-isolation after travel.

According to Henry, the first case in B.C. was in January with community transition cases beginning in March. 

At this time, there are 120 people currently hospitalized for COVID-19. Out of 1,575 lab-confirmed cases, 983 people have recovered. 

Victoria Buzz has reported on the measures that public health officials are now considering lifting.

According to Deputy Health Minister Stephen Brown, the province is preparing to restart scheduled surgeries and continue with urgent and emergency surgeries. 

While this is a step forward, Henry did state that the province would need to meet a number of milestones before authors consider lifting more restrictions.