No organized indoor gatherings, and sweeping restrictions announced for BC amid Omicron surge

The BC government has ramped up its COVID restrictions on events, gatherings, dining, and recreational activities, including indoor fitness, as the Omicron variant continues to take hold in the province.

On Tuesday afternoon, provincial health officer Dr Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix announced the following restrictions will come into place, effective Dec 23 at midnight to Jan 18, 2022:

• No organized indoor gatherings of ANY size, including weddings, receptions, celebratory events etc.

• Bars and nightclubs to close

• Gyms and fitness centres, dance studios to close

• Sports tournaments cancelled

• Seated events reduced to 50% regardless of venue size with vaccination checking, masking (at concerts, sports games, theatres, etc.)

• Maximum six people per table at restaurants, pubs, cafes, etc.

• Personal gatherings limited to your household plus one other household or 10 guests, all vaccinated

No travel restrictions were announced on Tuesday, although Henry said that the province’s guidance is to assess your own risk and the risk you may pose to others when travelling. If you are not vaccinated, you should not travel, she said.

These tightened measures come after Henry announced initial restrictions on gathering last Friday. However, she stressed Tuesday that the situation in BC has rapidly changed and continues to do so because of the spread of the Omicron variant.

“We are in a different boat but the consequences of not preparing for what is happening now all around us in our global community is just too great,” said Henry during Tuesday’s press conference.

“I know on Friday I had conversations. We spoke about the measures that we thought would be sufficient to get us through this but I can tell you that over this weekend we have spent a lot of time understanding as much as we could about what is happening with this variant, how it’s being transmitted in places around the world and what is happening here in British Columbia and today I need to announce additional measures.”

When asked why there was a sudden shift in restrictions from last week, Henry said the province has been carefully watching what has been unfolding in other jurisdictions abroad and across Canada.

“It became very, very clear on Sunday that we were starting to see that trajectory go up that was inevitable we were going to have some impact on hospitals and we have a very fragile healthcare workforce right now,” she said.

Updated modelling

Henry said that officials have been piecing together the impact of the Omicron variant.

“But some things are becoming very clear and one of those is that Omicron is definitely spreading rapidly and is more transmissible than what we’ve seen with the Delta variant than what we’ve been managing over the last few months,” she said.

Henry provided updated modelling scenarios to demonstrate how cases have rapidly been increasing in BC over the past few days.

The modelling shows an uptick in the new daily rate of cases, specifically for the Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health regions.

The cases are spiking for those who are unvaccinated in the province, but also for those who have received two doses of the vaccine. However, Henry said the severity of illness for vaccinated people is milder and hospitalization rates have remained low. For those who are unvaccinated, there has been a slight spike in hospitalizations.

The spread has also been more rapid in the 19 to 29 and the 40 to 59 age group. Henry explained that these age groups are likely to have more connections through work, family, and social networks.

In all health authorities, the new Omicron variant of concern is starting to see a surge—specifically in Vancouver Coastal Health, Vancouver Island Health, and Fraser Health. Overall in BC, the variant is beginning to replace Delta as the dominant virus strain.

As well, the latest R-value (rate of transmission) data indicates that the reproduction rate of the virus is above one in all regions, although Northern Health is slightly below one. Henry said that in Vancouver Coastal Health, nearly every case is being transmitted to at least two others. An R-value that is closer to zero indicates a slower spread.

Rapid testing

Health officials also announced BC’s plan to ramp up its rapid testing strategy. As of Dec 15, BC has received 3,197,306 rapid tests and has distributed 1,266,513 of these tests to long-term care, provincial corrections, rural and remote Indigenous communities, case/contact/cluster management, and businesses and organizations.

The province says is expecting a “delivery of significant volume of tests” in mid/late January 2022. BC has requested at least 11 million of the 84 million rapid tests from the federal government’s expected supply next month. The federal government has not confirmed the expected supply of tests beyond January 2022.

BC says it expects to expand its rapid testing in mid-January to public health and health authorities to help manage community transmission, to schools and post secondary institutions, to long-term care for expansion or replenishment, and to rural and remote Indigenous communities and businesses and organizations for case contact management.

BC has been questioned on the pace of its rapid testing rollout.

Earlier this month, Henry said BC doesn’t have at-home rapid tests for folks to administer at home by themselves.

“Many of them that we have are ones that require a health professional to take a swab, and we’ve deployed those in areas where they’re most useful. We don’t have the ones that Alberta is offering,” Henry said adding that the tests BC had needed to be processed through a machine for results.

She went on to clarify that BC did have 700,000 rapid tests that could be administered at home but they came in bulk packaging and require separation before they can be distributed to individuals.

In a previous interview with the Beacon, Dr Sarah Otto, an evolutionary biologist at UBC and a member of the independent BC COVID-19 Modelling Group said BC should have started a program similar to Nova Scotia in the fall, which saw volunteers working to separate rapid tests.

Otto emphasized the importance of rapid tests especially when it comes to milder symptoms that the Omicron variant is said to pass on.

On Tuesday, Henry said currently the province is using about 35,000 tests per week and BC has an inventory of 2.6 million different types of tests.

Before BC is expected to its additional rapid tests in mid-January, Henry said inventory will be prioritized for testing sites, long-term care, and for health care workers in acute care.

“We will of course continue to monitor [the tests’] effectiveness and utility and how we are using these and making sure we can support their effective use for people who have symptoms and need to understand their need to isolate and manage over the coming months,” said Henry.

She added that BC’s strategy is to use rapid tests will be used to manage those who have symptoms of COVID and not as a “green light” for people to use to ensure they are not sick and can go out and socialize.

“They need to be used strategically and that’s what we’re doing here in BC,” she said.

Booster shots and scheduled surgeries

The province said it will also be “ramping up” its booster program. To date, 721,761 booster shots have been administered. Beginning mid-January, Dix said BC’s roll-out will continue with its risk-based categorization by age.

In the coming weeks, there will be an increase of vaccination capacity by 62% overall through health authority clinic expansion. As well, pharmacy capacity will increase throughout January.

Dix said the increase in capacity will allow an accelerated booster program and ensure wait times are “reasonable.”

The health minister also provided an update on scheduled surgeries, announcing they would be postponed starting Jan 4 to manage pressure on the health care system.

“We will get you your surgeries,” assured Dix, “When we say we will get you your surgeries when we make that commitment to you, we are giving you our word and we keep our word,” he said.