BC’s “circuit breaker” restrictions expire on May 25th, after Victoria Day long weekend. Premier John Horgan, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, Health Minister Adrian Dix, and Jobs Minister Ravi Kahlon will unveil a restart plan at 1pm during a press conference on Tuesday, May 25th.
This long weekend saw the lowest daily number of cases in months at 293, with 974 new cases in total over the 3 day period.
The lifting of these circuit breaker restrictions will show BC residents what a post pandemic world can look like. Restrictions limiting indoor dining, gatherings, and non-essential between health zones have been in place for months.
Restaurants and other establishments have received the green light to open as per the restrictions in place before the circuit breaker restrictions, ie. indoor dining with social distancing, as of Tuesday morning, even before the update. Experts are commenting that the easing up on restrictions will likely occur in a slow and steady manner.
“I’m positive it’s going to be a slow reopening, and I think that’s a wise reopening. We can’t open too much or we’re going to overshoot. We have 50 per cent vaccinations and that’s great news, but it’s only 50 per cent, which means the virus still has a lot of people that it can transmit to among the people that have not yet been vaccinated.” said Sally Otto, a theoretical biologist and professor at UBC. (via CityNews)
Experts are also quite certain that outdoor activities and other “lower risk” activities will be expanded and/or reopened to the public in a post pandemic manner. However, it is possible that non-essential travel within health authorities still might take some more time to return.
Experts advise that people should still be weary of their plans, and be prepared for cancellations and/or postponing. It is being said that we are still a few weeks to a couple months away from a complete post pandemic BC.