B-C Health Minister Adrian Dix says it is time to exercise caution as case counts of the Omicron COVID-19 variant increase dramatically in Ontario, Quebec, and around the world. Dix says the province supports the federal government’s call advising Canadians against international travel over the holiday season. He says B-C is considering further public health orders on large and small public and private gatherings in an effort to limit the spread. Dix says he expects a decision on gatherings, which could include Vancouver Canucks games and informal private parties, to come early next week.
B-C is reporting 584 new cases of COVID-19 for a total of three-thousand-458 infections. Health officials say the province recorded seven more deaths, bringing the total number of COVID-19 related fatalities in the province to two-thousand-393.
The Ministry of Transportation says while the Coquihalla Highway is to reopen Monday it won’t look the same for some time. Some sections will be one lane in each direction and power still hasn’t been restored, so truckers will only have lighting in the snow sheds and brake checks with the use of generators. There’ll be reduced cellphone coverage, electronic vehicle charging stations will not be functional and commercial drivers can expect reduced speed limits.
Abbotsford Mayor Henry Braun says the city is working to set up a second waste transfer system for the mountain of garbage that will be picked up from outside homes. He says ditches along roads in the Sumas Prairie area are also filled with logs, bales of hay and items like propane tanks and vegetables stands, which were ripped from their foundation. He says the costly recovery will take years.
Surrey RCMP officers were involved in a dramatic rescue Wednesday after a vehicle veered off the road and went into a swimming pool. A vehicle, with two elderly people inside, lost control and veered off the road near the 165th and Glendwood Crescent South. The vehicle went through a fence, into a swimming pool and “quickly submerged.” Police were able to break the window glass and get them out of the vehicle and out of the pool.
Coquitlam RCMP warning the public after a man allegedly posing as a police officer pulled a driver over. Around midnight on Wednesday, a man driving eastbound on Highway 1 between Brunette Avenue and United Boulevard exits in Coquitlam saw red and blue flashing lights attached to an older model black Dodge Caravan. According to Mounties, the driver believed the car behind him was an unmarked police vehicle and pulled over to the side of the highway. The man allegedly posing as an officer exited his vehicle and demanded that the driver hand over his driver’s licence, the second piece of ID, and his entire wallet. If you suspect you’re being pulled over by a non-legitimate police vehicle Mounites suggest you “slow down, drive safely to the nearest well-lit, populated area.”
The University of British Columbia (UBC) has some very big ideas for its future presence in Surrey. The president and vice-chancellor of UBC, told Surrey business leaders on Tuesday that the long-term vision of the university is to grow the Surrey campus to deliver a wide range of programs, and serve 10,000 students or more. He painted a picture that UBC’s announcement in early November 2021 of acquiring a three-acre property in Surrey City Centre is just the starting point.