Provincial health officials says uncertainty about new variants BA.2
Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 02 Mar, 2022 11:05 AM
British Columbia's provincial health officer says there are still some uncertainties about new variants, including B-A-point-2, with some cases present in B-C.
Doctor Bonnie Henry says the province is prepared for a potential uptick in COVID-19 cases during the next respiratory season.
She says the province will integrate wastewater surveillance testing into its regular surveillance of respiratory illness including influenza, and also include other pathogens to get a periodic snapshot of what else may be circulating in communities.
Henry says a decline in hospitalizations, immunity from vaccination and the availability of at-home rapid tests point the way forward to normal activities like high school graduations, which young people need to feel connected to others.
Canada's most populous provinces are facing staff shortages in health- and long-term care as Canada continues to face record-breaking COVID-19 case numbers and hospitalizations related to the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
The joint condemnation Thursday by Canada, Britain, Sweden and Ukraine comes after Iran ignored a Wednesday deadline by the coalition of countries to negotiate a settlement for the Jan. 8, 2020 disaster that saw Iran's Revolutionary Guard shoot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752.
B.C.'s Housing Ministry says the escalating cost of housing is "concerning" and it will review the report. The B.C. government's housing plan includes cracking down on tax fraud, a vacancy tax and building tens of thousands of new homes, it says.
About 15 centimetres of snow blanketed Metro Vancouver overnight and almost double that amount was recorded at Victoria International airport as the latest storm slammed British Columbia's south coast. Airports in Vancouver and Victoria were reporting early delays and telling travellers to check with their airlines and all transit services were suspended in Greater Victoria.
Under normal conditions, the ministry uses a cable-collar system to remove snow that builds up on the cables of the Alex Fraser and Port Mann bridges so traffic can safely pass. However, high winds can increase the shedding of snow and pose a risk to the rope technicians. This prevents them from deploying the system.
There are 29,967 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and 237,195 people who tested positive have recovered. Of the active cases, 317 individuals are in hospital and 83 are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.
