B.C. health officials just did their last regular live COVID-19 briefing

Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.'s provincial health officer, announces that more than 400,000 people in British Columbia will be immunized from March to early April as the province moves into Phase 2 of the largest immunization rollout in B.C.’s history, on March 1, 2021. (B.C. government/Flickr)

VANCOUVER -

There will be no more routine COVID-19 briefings from B.C. health officials, the province's health minister said Tuesday.

Speaking to media at the end of a news conference on upcoming changes to coronavirus-prompted restrictions, Adrian Dix said there will be "new ways" to distribute the information reported by media daily for more than a year.

"We won't be doing the regular briefings going forward," he said.

There will be written briefings with information on cases, deaths and outbreaks through the rest of this week. The new ways he alluded to were not explained, though he promised they'd be appropriate and timely.

"Now, Dr. (Bonnie) Henry and I will still be around," he said with a smirk, adding they'd instead be available for questions from journalists, versus hosting regular news conferences on the disease, with time for questions at the end.

Dix praised the efforts of Henry, the provincial health officer and his partner in the regular news conferences the pair has held since January 2020.

"The person people have listened to in what have been really difficult times has been Dr. Henry, who works every day, and who as I've said, I think, before, expresses the compassion she shows at this podium in everything she does," he said.

"I am so appreciative of that."

He also thanked others working at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control and in public health.

Dix added that staff members and Henry will still be involved in what comes next "in the days and weeks and months and yes – well, I won't say anymore – the period to come."

The premier said he hopes the public will give officials a bit of levity on the decision in what he called an extraordinary time. John Horgan also acknowledged that he knows there are still plenty of challenges to be faced in the pandemic.,

He echoed Dix's appreciation of the province's top doctor, though he said he wouldn't say more because he knows she "doesn't handle this well," meaning praising her for "being everywhere for all of us for what seems like an eternity."