VANCOUVER -- At the end of a difficult week that saw several records shattered for COVID-19 infections and deaths in B.C., the province now has more than twice as many active cases per capita as Ontario.
The federal government makes daily, rolling average, and active case counts available in an infographic, and the contrast is stark: while the prairie provinces and Nunavut struggle with soaring infections per capita, B.C. is slowly catching up and in far worse shape than the two most populous provinces in Canada.
As of Friday, B.C. has 189 active COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people, compared to 135 in Quebec and just 88 in Ontario. Alberta (321), Saskatchewan (268), Nunavut (387), and Manitoba (646) saw the highest active per capita infections.
CTV News asked provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry whether she has considered adopting some of Ontario’s strategies, since it’s faring better in the second wave, such as a colour-coded notification system making it clear and easy for people to know what restrictions are in effect.
"We all have our own pandemic, and as we know the issues that we're dealing with are focussed in some areas and are different in different areas of the province, so our approach has always been to look at what is happening here and tailor our approach," insisted Henry. “Many of our measures are ones we put in measures some time ago that Ontario has included in some of their colour zones now. It's not like we can compare what we're doing. we're doing the things we need to do to manage what we're dealing with here in B.C."
The provincial health officer has faced intense criticism and even outright anger from various industries and sectors for implementing new rules and restrictions that aren’t clear or communicated directly to stakeholders, with murky rules between similar businesses that are clarified days later. Experts have warned that kind of confusion can undermine public health efforts.
CTV News pointed out the daily infections keep growing despite new restrictions implemented more than a week ago, and while Henry acknowledged she’s considering new measures, she also defended the current set of restrictions, including a “social lockdown,” and pointed out it takes time to see results.
“We still are in a place where we’re not surprised to see cases going up, obviously we want to see that corner bend,” she said. “I’m talking daily with my colleagues about what’s going on, what the situation is, what are the things we need to think about in terms of addressing them and what measures can we look at modifying or changing, so those are conversations we can continue to have and we will have a better idea next week.”