VANCOUVER -- In spite of public health orders prohibiting nearly all social gatherings outside households, B.C.'s top doctor says those events are still leading to the spread of COVID-19 in the province.
Dr. Bonnie Henry said during her COVID-19 briefing Tuesday that about 40 per cent of the exposures happening in the Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health regions are connected to social gatherings.
"Social gatherings that should not be happening right now," Henry said.
"This is the message we're trying to put out there, it has implications, even though you think that you're not at risk, or your family's not at risk."
The health orders limiting gatherings have been in place since November and minor exceptions are only available to those who live alone.
Henry pointed to one recent event where she said 50 people attended a games night at "an establishment that should not have been having a games night."
"Fifteen people from that event, which is against orders, became infected and spread to several workplaces, to schools and to a child-care centre," Henry said.
The top doctor said British Columbians need to hold each other accountable.
"We in public health cannot be everywhere," she said.
"We can't be in every pub or restaurant or business or every place, all at the same time, we need to hold each other accountable right now for stopping the spread, because that's what's going to get us into the spring."
B.C. renewed its state of emergency because of the pandemic for a 25th time on Tuesday.
In announcing that, the province also revealed more than 250 COVID-19 violation tickets were recently handed out in a two-week period, which is nearly a quarter of the tickets that have been handed out in the entire pandemic.
