British Columbia health officials to provide first live COVID update after change in strategy

Nearly 1,000 people are hospitalized in British Columbia due to covid as the Omicron variant continues to increase.

BC Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix will provide their final pandemic update at 3 p.m. after initially announcing it would be at 1:30 p.m. .

This will be broadcast live above, on BC1 and on the British Columbia Global Facebook Page.

1:46Current picture of COVID-19 in British Columbia

Sixty-three more people were admitted to hospitals over the weekend, but in good news the number of people in intensive care fell by one to 129.

Global News has learned that 51 people in intensive care are unvaccinated, including three people under the age of 19.

Sadly, another 24 people have died from complications related to the virus, bringing that total to 2,553 since the start of the pandemic.

British Columbia has confirmed an additional 4,997 new cases, however, the daily number of new cases is no longer considered an accurate measure of the spread of COVID-19, due to limited testing.

There are now 31,822 active cases of the virus in the province, which is the lowest since Jan. 6.

5:08British Columbia health officials say contact tracing no longer an effective tool to fight COVID

During the latest live briefing, Henry flagged a major change in how the province is handling COVID-19, saying everyone should assume he’s been a close contact and that contact tracing is no longer. effective.

Because of the Omicron variant, Henry said the province is treating COVID more like a cold.

“We cannot limit all the risks. It’s part of what we’re going to live with. We can use all layers of protection,” she said, such as following public health advice, getting vaccinated, washing hands, wearing good quality masks indoors, keeping groups small and use the vaccination card program to manage risk.

This story will be updated after the press conference at 1:30 p.m.

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