The province’s health minister promised to do better after call centres for scheduling vaccine appointments were overwhelmed yesterday on the first day of booking. Adrian Dix says there were 1.7 million calls in less than three hours after the phone lines opened for seniors over 90 and Indigenous people over 65 to book their appointments. He says more resources would be added in the coming weeks, as more age groups become eligible to call in to book their vaccines. Dix says he believes that people who were not yet eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine were flooding the lines, but he also acknowledged that more staffing was needed.
While the COVID-19 vaccine rollout continues in B.C. and the weather starts to warm up, the provincial health officer is suggesting health restrictions could slowly start to be lifted in the coming weeks. Dr. Bonnie Henry describes the process as “slowly turning up the dial” as opposed to “flipping a switch”, explaining the phased approach will see the return of types of gatherings with precautions in place, as well as in-person religious services, possibly in time for spring break Dr Bonnie Henry said: “There is much that we can look forward to in the coming months as we look ahead.” This comes as Henry reported 1,462 new COVID-19 infections since Friday, and 11 deaths from the virus. There are 240 patients in the hospital, with 66 of them in the ICU.
B-C’s minister of advanced education and skills training says universities and colleges will begin to prepare for a full return to campus starting this fall. Anne Kang says she is encouraged by the advice from health officials that a students can safely return to in-person classes. Provincial health officer Doctor Bonnie Henry asked heads of all public colleges and universities to prepare for a full return to on-campus education this September. Kang says the ministry will work with health and safety experts, student groups, labour, Indigenous partners and post-secondary institutions to develop guidelines in the coming weeks for a return to campus.
New guidelines from the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for those who have gone through the full COVID-19 vaccination process are “reasonable,” according to BC’s Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry. And during a press conference Monday afternoon, Henry predicted BC’s post-vaccination guidelines would be “very similar” to those south of the border. The CDC announced that those who’ve been fully vaccinated and waited two weeks after their final shot can:
- gather indoors with fully vaccinated people without wearing a mask; and
- gather indoors with unvaccinated people from one other household (for example, visiting with relatives who all live together) without masks, unless any of those people or anyone they live with has an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19.
If a fully vaccinated person has been around someone with COVID-19, they no longer need to isolate or get tested unless they display symptoms. Dr Bonnie Henry noted that as it currently stands, BC is “not at the point right now where we have enough of the people who are at risk immunized that we can have overall guidance.” Still, she called the CDC’s announcement “a very good example of what we can look forward to as more people are protected in the coming months.”
Another virtual event has been Zoom-bombed with disturbing sounds and images — the second time in less than a week. A number of people from across Canada gathered virtually Monday night for the Disability Filibuster, aimed at stopping Bill C-7. However, the gathering was interrupted by pornographic sounds and Nazi imagery. Lawrence said they left the meeting about five minutes after the event began. Before they exited, they say they saw a swastika on the screen. This follows a similar experience over the weekend, in which a women’s event in Richmond was Zoom-bombed with pornographic images, among other things. While it’s unclear if the two are linked, Lawrence notes they knew there was a chance that creeps could infiltrate their Monday event. Lawrence says it’s a complicated situation when it comes to trying to report what happened to police. After trying to regroup following Monday’s meeting, Lawrence says it doesn’t appear organizers will be taking legal action. Instead, they plan on looking at how to increase security protocols and will consider possibly changing platforms.
Police say an itsy-bitsy intruder inside a vehicle in Newton caused a bit of a scramble and led a woman to cry out for help. Surrey R-C-M-P say they received calls from the public after they saw a woman in distress Saturday afternoon. They say the woman opened the door of her white Toyota RAV-4 while it was moving to try and shoo the spider out. Police say they tracked down the man and woman in the vehicle and confirmed there was no criminal activity, and they hadn’t intended to cause alarm
The prime minister is brushing off calls for a debate over Canada’s future relationship with the British monarchy. Justin Trudeau says Canada still has work to do to eliminate discrimination and systemic racism in its institutions. But he says that doesn’t mean casting them aside and starting from scratch. There have been questions across the Commonwealth around future ties to the Queen, after Prince Harry and his wife Meghan’s explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey. A statement issued by Buckingham Palace says allegations of racism made by the couple will be addressed privately by the royal Family
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he will let Canadians know a delivery date for the newly approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine as soon as he gets confirmation. He says there are manufacturing problems with the one-dose vaccine that are holding up the first shipments He notes that nearly one-million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines were delivered last week, and close to one-million more doses of Pfizer and Moderna are arriving this week.
The Health Ministry says it is working with Vancouver Coastal Health in an effort to sort out problems that restricted people from booking COVID-19 vaccinations on the first day of open reservations. Data from the ministry shows just 369 vaccination reservations were made yesterday in Vancouver Coastal by people over 90 or Indigenous elders over 65 — but neighbouring Fraser Health managed nearly nine-thousand bookings. The ministry says just under 15-thousand reservations were made across B-C by eligible seniors and elders but many appointments are still available and those unable to get through on plugged phone lines yesterday are urged to try again, today. Lack of an online booking system in all regions except Fraser Health is blamed for part of the slowdown, while Health Minister Adrian Dix says phone lines were also overwhelmed by callers not ye eligible for a shot.
Health Canada approved the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine last week, but it’s unclear when the company’s first shipment will arrive in this country. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada has been warned of manufacturing problems plaguing the viral vector shot. The federal government pre-ordered 10 million doses of the vaccine. Trudeau says as soon as the government gets confirmation of doses being sent to Canada, they’ll let everyone know.
Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum is asking all Surrey residents to spend 20 minutes each week picking up litter in their neighbourhood. “The citizens are proud of their city and they want to keep their city clean and so they’re willing to pitch in and help us keep our city clean,” he said at Monday’s council meeting. “All we’re asking is each person spend 20 minutes a week around their house, or around their business or wherever they are, just spend 20 minutes each week to pick up the litter that’s around your street. If we all work together we will have a very clean city.” The 2021 Love Where You Live Campaign is set to launch on April 22. The city launched its first in 2019, and within six months 5,000 bags of trash were removed from Surrey’s streets and parks, 4,400 pieces of illegally dumped junk were collected from all over the city, 1,000 tonnes was collected at Pop-Up Junk Events and 600 pounds of waste was swapped.