Personal gatherings to be restricted ahead of Christmas as Omicron drives BC COVID cases up

Starting Monday, Dec 20 at 12:00am, indoor personal gatherings in BC will be restricted to 10 guests outside of a household, or to two separate households.

Provincial health officer Dr Bonnie Henry and health minister Adrian Dix announced several new public health orders Friday afternoon in an effort to contain the spread of the newly discovered Omicron variant, believed to be several times more transmissible than the Delta variant.

All of the new public health orders will take effect Monday at midnight.

Aside from the restriction on indoor personal gatherings, there are new orders requiring the use of the BC Vaccine Card for events of all sizes rather than those with more than 50 people, restricting movement or table-hopping in restaurants, limiting the capacity of events to 50% at venues that can hold more than 1,000 people, and suspending all youth and adult sporting tournaments.

All New Years’ Eve events are also cancelled, regardless of their size. Restaurants are still allowed to remain open and serve NYE dinners, but guests must remain seated with no mingling or dancing allowed.

Retail stores are required to have a COVID safety plan in action during the holiday shopping season, and especially during Boxing Day sales.

The orders will remain in effect through to January 31 at 11:59pm. None of them apply to faith gatherings, which can continue at 100% capacity if all attendees are fully vaccinated, at 50% capacity if some attendees are not fully vaccinated.

It comes as other provinces also quickly move to put in requirements ahead of the holiday season in light of the appearance of the Omicron variant. Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced earlier Friday that all gatherings will be restricted to 10 people starting Sunday, and attendance at all indoor settings will be reduced to 50% of the venue’s capacity.

Ontario has also ramped up its rollout of booster vaccinations and started handing out free rapid tests at public locations, including liquor stores, across the province. Most other provinces, including Alberta, Quebec, and Nova Scotia, are also giving out free rapid tests.

While BC has not given any indication that its booster rollout will be sped up, Dix told reporters earlier this week that the province will be announcing details of its rapid test program on Tuesday.

Henry told reporters Friday that BC is already seeing ramped up case rates as a result of Omicron’s spread in the province. Other jurisdictions around the world and in Canada have seen cases skyrocket in recent days.

“We’re no exception to that. We will see rapidly rising cases over the next few weeks,” Henry said.

Dix said Omicron is expected to become the dominant COVID variant in BC.

Henry also pleaded with British Columbians who have not yet received their COVID vaccination to do so as soon as possible, pointing to the new variant’s extremely high transmissibility.

“[If you are not vaccinated], this virus will find you,” Henry said.

She noted that while Omicron seems more able to infect people who are double-vaccinated, they are more likely to escape severe illness than those who have not received their vaccinations.