Health Minister Adrian Dix and Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry
Image Credit: SUBMITTED / Province of B.C.
August 13, 2020 - 4:58 PM
Health Minister Adrian Dix has drawn a line in the sand and warned against violating rules that no more than 50 people can gather together in one place because of COVID-19.
“What this is, is a warning in advance of what can happen this weekend and that our expectations are that the rules will be followed,” Dix said during a COVID-19 update today, Aug. 13. “This weekend, particularly with respect to the unequivocal health order on gatherings of more than 50 people, is that they can expect to be visited.
“If there are what are, essentially, private parties in public halls, they can expect to be visited and the rules will be enforced and that will have consequences in the future, even if it can’t be reasonably possible to shut down an event.”
While he didn’t specifically state what those consequences might be, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, at the same briefing, said that businesses have been shut down for not following proper safety plans.
She rejected a media suggestion that all nightclubs be shut down by explaining that some individual businesses, such as nightclubs and restaurants, have been closed until their practices are in line with provincial rules. As a result, she’s not seeing COVID-19 being spread in those venues.
The spread of COVID-19 is now happening in other businesses or at private parties.
For example, Fraser Health has listed Royal Beauty Supply in Surrey as a place where they have not been able to contact all the people who attended a three-day rave on July 31 to Aug. 2 so people who attended should monitor themselves for symptoms. The event was called the Royal Jerk Spot Weekend Summer Fest Day and Night Rave.
“There are some people out there who are trying to skirt the rules – to find ways to get around things and hide things and we’re trying to find them,” Dr. Henry said, not referring specifically to that event. “Where we know about them, they are being shut down.”
She wants people who know about these events to alert bylaw officers or health inspectors.
There were 78 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours and 85 the day before. Many are being detected in young people and there are now 1,878 people who have to isolate at home because of possible exposure to COVID-19.
Dr. Henry also warned that, even in young people with minor symptoms, the effects of COVID-19 can drag on for weeks or months, often through things like profound fatigue.
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