B.C. lifting capacity limits, reopening bars and allowing dancing, but vaccine passport to stay
Packed stadiums, indoor weddings, busy nightclubs and big family gatherings are returning to British Columbia.
Government officials have announced they're lifting several of the province's COVID-19 restrictions at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, allowing many activities that have been off-limits since December – and in some cases, much longer – to resume.
Bars and nightclubs will reopen, with patrons dancing and mingling between tables. Organized events such as wedding and funeral receptions will move back indoors. And all of those businesses and venues will be operating at full capacity, along with movie theatres, performance spaces and sports arenas.
Officials are also removing limits on household gatherings – allowing hosting at home to "return to normal," according to the province's plans.
Premier John Horgan credited the public's broad compliance with existing health orders for making the dramatic shift in approach possible.
"All of us have made sacrifices," Horgan said at a news conference Tuesday. "I believe it's that collective effort that's put us in the position today where we can relieve these restrictions and look forward to better days ahead."
Masks will remain mandatory at indoor public spaces and proof of vaccination will continue to be required for many discretionary activities. Even those measures, considered cornerstones of the province's COVID-19 mitigation strategy, are scheduled to be reviewed in mid-March, and again in April.
The pending changes are happening much quicker than some critics had hoped.
Earlier in the day, Dr. Sally Otto of the independent B.C. COVID-19 Modelling Group suggested the situation in hospitals remains too precarious for an aggressive reopening plan.
"I am hoping for a gradual reopening that is in line with hospitalization numbers," Otto told CTV Morning Live. "People are getting impatient, but now's not the time to get impatient."
There were 803 coronavirus-positive patients hospitalized across the province as of Monday afternoon, though that includes hundreds who were admitted for other reasons and only tested positive incidentally.
Last week, B.C.'s rolling seven-day average for COVID-19 deaths also reached a 13-month high of 13 deaths per day. It has since dropped to about eight per day.
Otto noted there has been much “divisiveness in the air," along with increasing pressure on politicians to relax COVID-19 measures and remove mandates. Disruptive trucker convoy protests have raised the temperature across Canada, though B.C. officials have been adamant the demonstrations have done nothing to alter their approach.
Horgan addressed the protests Tuesday, thanking the "90 per cent of truckers" who remain on the job delivering essential supplies across the country.
Of the others, he said: "We can agree to disagree, but we should not be disagreeable."
Even experts who remain squeamish about lifting restrictions acknowledge the Omicron wave is subsiding. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry argued widespread vaccination – B.C. has fully immunized more than 90 per cent of residents age 12 and older – has paved the way for the government's shift to a long-term COVID-19 management strategy focused on personal responsibility, along with "specific actions to protect those most at risk of severe infection."
"We know that remains our elders, our seniors, people who have immune-compromising conditions," Henry said.
For others, she pointed to the growing body of evidence that vaccination against COVID-19 decreases the risk of transmission, and particularly of death and other severe outcomes.
But even as the province takes major steps toward returning to normal life, Henry cautioned that the pandemic is far from over.
"We know there will be continuing pressure on this virus to mutate into a new variant – a variant that may cause more serious illness, a variant that may evade some of the immune benefits that we have right now," she said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
Loud boom in Hamilton caused by propane tank, police say
A loud boom heard by residents across Hamilton was caused by a ‘busted or shredded’ propane cylinder, police say.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
OPP responds to apparent video of officer supporting anti-Trudeau government protestors
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.