B.C. is limiting the size of gatherings in private homes after setting a three-day record with 817 new COVID-19 cases over the weekend. The new order limits gatherings in private homes to members of your immediate household, plus six others in your social bubble. Dr. Bonnie Henry said the immediate focus will be on the Fraser Health region, where most new cases are occurring. Of the new cases, a single-day record 317 were recorded from Saturday to Sunday, followed by 293 over the next 24 hours, and 207 more for the period ending Monday. Henry also announced three more deaths, all in long-term care homes.
Two schools are closed following exposures to COVID-19 that affected larger numbers of staff. Bonnie Henry says the schools in the Interior and Fraser health regions are closed for as long as the virus’s incubation period. She says a small number of people associated with the schools actually have COVID-19, but the requirement that their contacts self-isolate for two weeks meant the schools couldn’t operate. Henry says staff are working to make sure students have educational support while the schools are closed.
Several more schools in Surrey reported COVID-19 exposures over the weekend, the school district announced on Twitter. An exposure occurs when someone comes in contact with a school and later tests positive for coronavirus. Meaning anyone they may have interacted with leading up to their positive diagnosis could have been exposed to the virus.
Andrew Wilkinson announced his resignation as BC Liberal leader yesterday following the BC NDP’s majority win in the provincial election. Wilkinson added he’s asked the party president to work with the executive to immediately determine a timeline for a leadership selection process to determine his successor. He assumed the leadership position in February 2018. Wilkinson will stay on as leader until the party elects a replacement.
A Metro Vancouver commuter says he was confronted by a man who put up a white supremacy poster at Surrey Central Station yesterday. Ranil Prasad was getting off the bus when he spotted the man sticking the poster to the side of a porta-potty. When he stopped to read the poster, he realized it was a white supremacy poster calling BC the “most anti-white place on earth.” After snapping a photo, he ripped it down.. As he was walking away, the man who put the poster there accosted him. Prasad was able to lose the man, he got on the SkyTrain, tweeted about the ordeal, and contacted Metro Vancouver Transit Police.