B.C. health officials renewing pleas to residents to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as surging cases in the province’s Central Okanagan local health region bring on new restrictions.
Cases there have tripled since July 28, when an outbreak was declared within the local health region, growing from 320 last week to about 1,200 as of Friday, according to Dr. Sue Pollock, chief medical health officer of Interior Health.
“This is impacting everyone and we're not moving the dial quickly enough with our immunizations,” she said.
Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.’s provincial health officer, said about 80% of cases in the Interior Health region, where the Central Okanagan local health region is located, can be tied to the far more infectious Delta variant of COVID-19.
She said the surge is mostly affecting “under-immunized young people” between the ages of 20 and 40, referring to those who may be unvaccinated or have only received a single dose.
“We also know that this age group of people are the most connective, and whether that's through work, through social connections through families, children,” Henry said.
“Most of the transmission events we are seeing [are] through social gatherings, whether that's in vacation rentals, people coming together and having parties in bars and nightclubs.”
Effective Monday, new restrictions will hit the Central Okanagan communities of Peachland, West Kelowna, Kelowna Lake Country, West Bank First Nation lands and the electoral districts of the Central Okanagan.
Bars and nightclubs will be closed, and restaurants will face limits on indoor and outdoor dining — including stopping liquor service at 10 p.m.
Meanwhile, outdoor personal gatherings and outdoor organized gatherings will be limited to 50 people. Personal indoor gatherings will go back to five people or one other household, while organized seated gatherings indoors will be restricted to 50 people.
The number of people who can visit inside any given vacation rental will be limited to five people, plus the occupants.
Henry is also “strongly recommending” against any non-essential travel to and from the Central Okanagan.
Meanwhile, Henry also put the kibosh — at least for now — on the potential for B.C. to offer a third dose of a vaccine to accommodate international travel for anyone who might have mixed and matched vaccine doses.
Not all countries have approved the vaccines given the green light in Canada, leaving some potential international travellers in limbo with regards to their destinations.
“We are not the only country that is using AstraZeneca [plc], that's using mixed AstraZeneca and mRNA vaccine, that's using mRNA vaccines interchangeably. There are many other countries that are doing that too,” Henry said.
“These things will settle out over time.”
