 Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Adrian Dix, I'm BC's Minister of Health. To my right is Dr Bonnie Henry, BC's provincial health officer. It's our COVID-19 briefing for Tuesday and November 16th. We're honored to be here on the territories of the people, the Songhees and the Esquimalt First Nations. Today we're here to provide an update on COVID-19 and answer your questions. But I wanted to first share and I know I speak for everyone in BC. I want to thank you to emergency crews, healthcare workers, health authority employees, BC emergency health services and ministry staff for everything they've done over the past couple of days to keep people safe. This includes a significant efforts to safely move patients and residents of long-term care and assisted living out of flood areas. About 150 have been moved so far, principally from Merritt. And another 48 are expected to be moved in Princeton in the next little while. Those are significant and difficult things. And especially our teams in interior health have done an extraordinary job, I think. Paramatics were there yesterday to assist those being evacuated by helicopter on Highway 7. Whether our lives have been directly impacted by these events or we have seen their impact on others, what has touched all of us and will continue to as the recovery proceeds are the efforts of emergency and healthcare workers, local and regional governments, volunteers, friends, strangers and passers-by who have offered a handout, support, hands of assistance and other welcomes, supports and comforts in evacuation areas. All British Columbians are thinking of those who have been impacted by the heavy rain, severe wind and significant flooding and respect their strength, resilience and courage. Minister will continue, I believe later today, to have updates on the flooding and emergency officials. With that, it is my honor to introduce Dr. Bonnie Henry. Thank you and good afternoon. I also would like to start by recognizing the communities that have been affected by the recent flooding and landslides across much of the province over the past few days. And I am very grateful for very strong community support that has helped people get through this and the heroic work of our emergency services. I have a meditation teacher that used to talk about this too. And sometimes it is a challenge for us that we have been through so much in this past year and a half and now this too. But it is our sense of community and strength that will keep us strong and get us through this one as well. In this global pandemic, we have learned as much as we can from watching what is happening around the world. And currently, watching what is happening in Europe and the UK has meant that we have had to look carefully at what we are seeing here in British Columbia as well. If we think of Austria and Germany and the Netherlands, Finland, it reminds us that we are not yet through this pandemic and we need to take a slow and measured response. Last week, I was asked about new potential variants of concern in our province. And particularly, we talked briefly about the western lineage that has been seen in here in BC and Alberta and Saskatchewan and today I would like to report that we have had our first confirmed cases of the AY4.2. This is one of the delta sub-lineages and we talked last week about the fact that as the virus replicates and affects more people, it mutates. And there are now about 120 different sub-lineages of the delta strain of the virus around the world. And we have seen here in BC and as mentioned across the west, the AY25 and 27, and these were first found in British Columbia around June and now is about two-thirds of the cases that we are seeing. All viruses mutate and we know that and development of these new lineages which are unique to geographic areas are really expected over time when we have ongoing transmission in our communities. We are watching closely, particularly now with these new cases of AY4.2 and this was a specific mutation that has been found in the UK. It is not yet its own variant of concern. It is one of the other things, the language and the nomenclature of how we are naming these lineages and sub- clades has been changing as well. But we are continuing to follow the whole genome sequencing and making sure we are aware of what strains are being transmitted here in British Columbia. What we are looking for is whether these variants of interest and concern are spreading more quickly or making people sicker and of course we are watching very carefully to see if they are associated with less effectiveness of the vaccine. So far, what we have seen and what we have talked about over the last number of weeks is the fact that the strains of the Delta variant that we are seeing are spreading much faster and causing more damage and that remains the same. And our best defense continues to be being vaccinated. We are now starting to receive a small number and we received our first shipment of the Johnson & Johnson or Janssen vaccine. It is a viral vector single dose vaccine, though we likely are going to need a booster dose at some point. But as I mentioned last week, our priority is to make this vaccine available to people, healthcare workers who are in the provincial health officer order and wish to be immunized and are currently on leave so they can return to work. However, we expect that we will be getting some more in and that we will have more than we need to address the needs of healthcare workers affected under the PHO order. So if you are somebody that would like to get this vaccine, the way to do that is to contact Immunized BC Call Centre 838-2323 and let the agent know that you would like to be put on the wait list for the J&J or Janssen vaccine. You will be transferred to what we call the complex cases line where your information will be collected. And if you are a healthcare worker, let the agent know that as well. And then once we have an understanding of how many people affected under the PHO order require this vaccine, we will be able to connect you to doses in your community. I would like to reiterate that we have about 5,000 doses that have come in to the province just this past weekend. And so that's what we will be working with right now for the next couple of weeks. But if this is of interest to you, then I encourage you to call the MSBC contact centre. I also want to take a moment to talk about the importance of age. We anticipate that health Canada will likely be coming out with their recommendations around use of this vaccine for children very soon. And we have been reassured that there will be enough vaccine for just over 300,000 children in this age group here in British Columbia. We expect that health Canada will make their decision after a thorough process to review all of the data. We have seen that the importance of these independent review of the safety and how well the vaccine works, the effectiveness of this vaccine for children, and we are counting on health Canada to continue to do that due diligence with this vaccine. And I know that they are doing that right now. And the National Advisory Committee on Immunization is working closely with them to look at all of the data on this vaccine and on children and will issue their recommendations at the same time as the vaccines come out. So that is great news. That means that we will have that thorough independent review that we can rely on for making decisions. I also want to talk a little bit about this vaccine. We said a few times that this is a version that is designed specifically for children. It has a smaller dose, about 10 milligrams, and a smaller amount. And that will mean less pain and discomfort with the shot. And that means that this is tailored for the immune systems of younger children so that it doesn't cause as much side effects and it can be strongly effective as well. So those are good things. I think it's important for us to recognize that we had these vaccines that have come out and been used in millions and close to billions now of people around the world. And we know a lot about them now. This is, and the extension of these vaccines to younger children has now been done in a way that specifically looks at how the immune system of young children respond to the vaccines and respond to any vaccine. We know that younger children have good strong immune systems for the most part so they don't need as much of an antigen boost. We have also known, and I was talking with my colleagues from the United States, and they have rolled out the vaccine program for us and we are getting lots of great information on safety and how well the vaccine is working there. If and when it is approved and we start to receive doses in BC, we will be starting to contact parents who have registered their children. And this is a good way to make sure that you can get access to the vaccine as soon as it's available. So by registering now, your children likely we expect to be able to receive this and I encourage parents to think about this now. Of course there is concerns. We all want to make sure that we are doing the best for our children and we want to make sure that these vaccines are safe and are going to work. So speak to your family doctor, your pediatrician, your pharmacist, get that information that will help you make those decisions about what is right for your child. Use some of the established incredible information up to date so far, what we know at the BCCDC website. And I encourage people to as well go to the tool hashtag, it does not have to hurt. This is a program we have expertise in Canada that has been involved with looking at how do we get vaccines in a way that is safe for children and minimizes the pain and the concerns that children have in their vaccination programs. There is some really good information on this that can help parents and children understand what to expect and how to prepare for receiving their vaccine. These are excellent resources that make the experience better for your children and for you. I also encourage parents to talk with the young people, their children, to understand their concerns and to help prepare them. These are things that we can do that can support our families and our communities. We can help them understand what the anxiety are that young people have or what they want and their preferences are around vaccination. As these vaccines are coming, we will be providing as much information as we can about how the vaccines work, how they work in young children, what we are seeing in terms of side effects and how to prepare. I encourage people now to start looking at this to be able to support your children. For the most part, children have milder illness, but we can't tell which are the children necessarily who are going to have more severe illness or are going to develop longer-term concerns and complications from COVID-19. Vaccinating children in the younger age group will not be mandatory, but it will give your children as much protection as possible. The best path to immunity is not to go to school, but to go to school. I encourage parents across the province to start looking into that now. As well, I want to say that our immunization, influenza immunization campaign is going ahead as we know. We have started to see some more cases of influenza in the province. We have had about 27 confirmed cases, but most of them are in children who have received a vaccine, so that is the number of cases we are seeing is still small, but we know that can grow quickly. That is why I strongly encourage everyone to get their flu vaccine before we get too far into the holiday season, especially if you are going to be around people who are immunocompromised or older people in our lives. Like COVID-19 vaccines, influenza vaccines protect you and protect those around you. We have had some updated information that the public health agency in health Canada have posted about masks, and as we have been moving through this pandemic, we have been learning more and more about the importance of that extra layer of protection, particularly in the winter months when we are moving indoors. As it gets colder and more of our activities move indoors, we come into closer contact with others outside of our homes, and particularly in settings where there is more of us crowded together, where the ventilation is not as good. Masks become one of those incredibly important safety layers that are particularly important as we move through this winter season. And the mask, one of the things about masks is the layers. The best mask is the one you are wearing and wearing correctly. The one that comfortably covers your nose and mouth and chin. If you are underlying health conditions or immune compromise, then you might want to choose a medical mask. And this is more information that we are finding is that medical masks do have that extra layer that attracts particles and droplets and viruses, which is why they are, they can have a better filtering effect to protect you from breathing in viruses. They are also certified. Medical masks and respirators are certified by Health Canada, so they have to meet specific standards. However, we do know that they can be challenging for people. They can be irritating and they can cause it to be more difficult to breathe. So if you choose to wear a non-medical mask, then we want to make sure that you are wearing one that has the number of layers of protection, that it fits snugly around your nose and that it has at least three layers, and that can be applied to your nose and that it is made up of tightly woven fabric. So I encourage people to have a look at the new guidance and some of the information around masks that are on the public health agency of Canada website. The other option that people can take is to wear a medical mask and a non-medical mask on top to help improve the fit around the mouth and nose. It has been a strong recommendation for some time, but as we are moving into the holidays, we head into the holiday season that when we are indoors in public places, when we are indoors around other people, that we, as many of us, gather to celebrate important religious events, for example, we want to ensure everybody has the best protection possible, and that includes, right now, being consistent in wearing masks when we are in indoor spaces. Yesterday, the Attorney General announced the intent to introduce a bubble zone around schools and health care facilities. The unrestricted access is critical for everyone receiving an education or requiring care. So I just want to add my commendation to the Attorney General for this decision. I know it is important, and I think it's an important piece of legislation to protect our health care services and our education and schools. So to sum up, the pandemic is still very much with us, and we must all continue to proceed with caution. We are closely watching what is happening elsewhere in the world, as other countries experience surges in new cases, and the strains on their health care system. We have been there, and we continue to have strains on our health care system here, but none of us wants to get to that place again. It's going to be challenging to get us through this winter, but we know what we need to do, and we can do it together. That's why I'm asking all of you to keep our walls of protection and our layers of protection strong. We need to support each other, to do our part, to encourage each other, to get vaccinated, to get the information we need to make sure we can make that right decision, and to do all of those things which will help us get through this winter. That means, of course, staying home when we're ill, keeping our groups and our families safe, choosing outside instead of inside, washing our hands regularly, and making sure that if particularly to honor our seniors and elders and those amongst us who are immune compromised to make sure that we are vaccinated, so that we're not putting others at risk, and we're keeping safe ourselves. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Dr Henry, and we have, I just have a few updates with you on vaccination and surgeries and influenza vaccines, and then we'll move on to questions. Firstly, and this is, if you look nationally or internationally, extremely good news, 4,209,074 people in BC have received their first dose immunization against COVID-19. That's 19.7% of all those over 12. 4,26,399 have received their second dose, they're fully vaccinated, and that's 86.8%, the number partially vaccinated is now under 4%, who have received one dose but not their full course. And now, of course, with the addition of booster doses for many vulnerable British Columbians, we've done in terms of third doses, sometimes called booster doses, 242,460 of those, that's about 5% of the BC population, but importantly, all of the 150,000 of those for people over 70, that's 20% of that population, and certainly, I would say, shows significant, the significant efforts that continue to be made in this period to make sure that our most vulnerable people in BC are safe. Just an update with respect to the vaccine status of health authority, health care workers, it's exclusive to long-term care staff. The number now, the total number of all those unvaccinated people is 2,885, which is down again, but importantly, and just importantly, because of new additions as well, 125,190 fully vaccinated and 1,265 partially vaccinated, the fully vaccinated number continues to increase across the system, so that means basically 98% vaccinated, 97% fully vaccinated, 1% partially vaccinated, 2% not vaccinated, and of those not vaccinated, 974 casual employees, 942 are full-time, 15 not specified in our data here, and 774 part-time. So we continue to make progress with respect to the vaccinating health care workers and the fact that 126,455 have been vaccinated, demonstrates the strong support from health care workers for those efforts that we're making, and I think it's very important that we continue to make progress with respect to the vaccine, and with respect to health care workers for those efforts, and for keeping everybody in health care and by extension patients and residents in long-term care safe, that meant those efforts continue. I want to report on the numbers of influenza vaccines that have been doses that have been administered in BC, that's 721,246 doses of which numbers, there's a little bit of a lag time in reporting sometimes, but that is a significant progress in our influenza campaign. I just note that 2,039,000 doses of influenza vaccine have been distributed across BC to community vaccine providers both in health authorities and in community pharmacy, and that effort continues while all of these other efforts are taking part in health care, and we want to particularly shout out to all of those who are working on that campaign and encourage everyone to get your flu shot. I want to just report on contact tracing that over the past week and additional 30,000 people have been vaccinated, and I think it's a significant increase in the number of people who have been vaccinated, and I think it's a significant increase in the number of people who have been vaccinated. I want to just report on contact tracing that over the past week and additional 37 staff have been added to support contact tracing, that's for a total of 1,632 as of November 12th to put this in context in May of last year when we had more than 10,000 active cases of COVID-19, we had 1,563 contact tracers in place. We've now surpassed that number. And with respect to surgeries, since May 2020, as you know, we made our surgical renewal commitment to patients, we've shared news on our progress. Sometimes the progress, as you know, has been extraordinarily strong in that period, and our teams have done an amazing job. At other times, when COVID has fought back against our efforts to stop the spread, our progress has been tempered by great challenge. Our weekly reports, I think, are encouraging for this reason. They show how all those involved in delivering surgeries weaken and get patients the surgeries they need. Each week, all those involved in delivering surgeries do just that. They deliver surgeries. And each week is my honor to report on their unyielding achievement. This week, we continue to face challenges in interior health. COVID outbreaks at Royal Inland hospitals have caused a reduction of six operating rooms. While the outbreaks are managed, three operating rooms remain open to the public. We will resume scheduled surgeries at the hospital when it is again safe to do so. That has always been our commitment and it remains our commitment. To that point, Northern Health, which has faced significant challenges from COVID-19, is slowly increasing surgery at University Hospital of Northern BC in Prince George and at Dawson Creek District Hospital. We know, I know, how important every step of Northern Health shows that where we face challenge and experience set back, we make every effort possible to get patients the surgeries they need. At the same time, and I want to say this, this is something we reported on consistently, 123 critical care patients have been transferred out of Northern Health since September 5th. The vast majority of those are, I have tested positive for COVID-19, the vast majority of those are unvaccinated. We are proud of our Northern Health authorities to support Northern Health continues and we are proud of those efforts and proud of all of our extraordinary teams in Northern Health. With that, this week, here is this week's update on our surgeries. Some surgeries continue to be postponed during the reporting period November 7th to November 13th. Health authorities postponed 174 non-urgent scheduled surgeries. That is 43 in Fraser Health, 3 in Northern Health, and 82 in Interior Health. No surgeries were postponed in the provincial health services authority. So cumulatively from September 5th to November 13th, there have been 2,845 surgical postponements. Despite these postposements, surgeries are continuing across the province. I want to update the numbers because we had full reporting for the period October 17th, October 23rd, our last full period of reporting. Health authorities report in that period that 7,148 surgeries were completed. That is an update from last week. This is 1,217 more surgeries than the same week in 2019. Although that week in 2019 included Thanksgiving. Whether they are delivering surgeries, providing critical care or ensuring emergency departments are there for it. Our health care teams can't do it without us. Our continuing effort to stop the spread, our effort to keep our health care system strong. I want to say just in terms of health care system, you will know if you are listening to these reports, that we have about 9,229, not exactly 9,229 basic acute care beds in the province. We have 2,353 surge beds in addition to that for a total of 11,582. As of Monday morning, 9,137 beds were full. We are with patients. So that is almost all of our basic acute care beds. We have about 9,229 basic acute care beds in the province. In critical care, we have 510 base beds, 218 surge beds for a total of 728. And as of Monday morning, 459 of those were full. Those numbers in the course of a week will bounce around somewhat. But it just shows how intensely busy our health care system is and how much all of us need. All of us to do our job. Which is get vaccinated, get our flu shot, use our COVID sense, follow public health guidance when we do our job. We make a difference in the life of everybody in the health care system and the lives of all of those people who for significant variety of reasons need help in the public health care system today. I ask everyone to get vaccinated against COVID-19, get your flu shot and stay safe. We are happy to take your questions. A reminder to media on the line, please press star 1 to enter the queue. You will be limited to one question and one follow-up. Thank you. Dr. Henry, I'm trying to get a sense of what the floods and slides, what impact it may have on the way that we are trying to move vaccine around. Are there any concerns that vaccine will not be able to get around the province to the places they are needed? You mentioned Princeton will eventually have to move patients. What challenges is having on the in terms of how many patients are having to move around and are we worried that these are populations that have higher percentage of unvaccinated people and that COVID may be moved around the province and lead to increase spread because of this movement due to the disruptions through the floods and floods. CHAIR YELLEN. Obviously that is a worry and it reinforces the importance of not only being vaccinated but all of the other measures that we know are important when we are in those enclosed settings and whether it is on a bus, being moved between places, whether it is in a reception centre, making sure that we are keeping our distance from people, wearing masks appropriately and supporting each other through this very, very challenging time. In terms of vaccination, sorry, in vaccines, yes, there has been some challenges. We received our shipment of Janssen, for example, the J&J vaccine on Friday and there was some delays in getting it into the interior over the last few days but it has arrived and we have different ways of doing that. So it has meant taking alternative measures in some communities to get things obviously. I think it is the rest of us are now disconnected from the rest of Canada for a little while with the damage to the roads that we have seen. We have alternate ways of getting vaccines into communities and the clinics are continuing in many communities. Obviously in those areas like Merritt and Princeton and some of the places in Abbotsford right now, there are other priorities and we are focusing on supporting people to get through those as well. And Richard, we are reporting on some of these things in detail. What I can say about the patients, not the patients, the residents of long-term communities most severely affected, including Merritt and Princeton, that the total number of patients in home care residents that have been moved is 150 and are expected to be moved to further 48. And that doesn't seem like a lot of people but in many cases we are talking about people who are extremely vulnerable. And in the case of people in Merritt in particular, a group of patients in or should I say residents of long-term care who have already had to move this summer in the course of the evacuations around the wildfires. And I just want to say that we are thinking and supporting those residents, our extraordinary care teams are helping them. I want to say to their families, we are continuing to work together and to keep you informed of the progress we make. But it is a very, very difficult thing. And I just want to pay tribute to all of our teams in interior health from Susan Brown, to the people on the ground who are helping move people today, how much we appreciate their work. Interior health has dealt with a very difficult period, related to COVID-19 with wildfires that involve significant evacuations, including through the Kelowna Airport and down to Metro Vancouver. And now more evacuations. All of these things have faced interior health and I want to pay tribute to the strength of the teams in that area, because they have faced these challenges and really been there for residents in long-term care, residents in assisted living, patients in acute care from the beginning. But those are the changes and of course amongst those groups of people, healthcare workers, 100% are fully vaccinated, of the residents almost all have received, or the vast majority have received not just first and second but also their influence of vaccination. So that group of people vaccinated with respect to others, obviously everyone needs to be prudent in these times, but I think our healthcare teams are doing extraordinary work and Minister Farmworth will have more to say on this later today. Richard, do you have a follow-up? On AY 4.2, Dr. Henry, I think indications in the UK are slightly more transmissible. What does this do in terms of our strategies against COVID-19? Does it continue to be the same measures plus vaccine? Or do we need additional steps in order to accommodate for evolutions like this? So right now, it's a watchful waiting and watching what's happening with this specific sub-linear in the UK as well. And yes, we are re-looking, as I've sort of been hinting for a while, I'm going to go back to the last little while about what are the things that we need to do all of us to get us through this next few months, regardless of which strains we're seeing circulate. It's all Delta around the province, as I've mentioned, and a large proportion of what we're seeing is the AY 25. So our strategies need to be the same. It just reiterates the importance of recognizing that this strains of Delta are spreading. Much more easily and those indoor crowded environments are where it spreads even more rapidly. So we need to use every layer of protection from staying away from others if we're not feeling well ourselves or who have been exposed, making sure that we're vaccinated, particularly if we're around people who are immune compromised or who don't mount a strong and immune response so the elders and seniors in our lives as well. And making sure that we wash our hands regularly, keep that safe distance from people, and keep groups small as much as we can. Next question, we go to Ben Milger, CTV. Thank you very much. Minister Dix, what can you tell us about the physical infrastructure of care homes and other health care facilities like hospitals that were damaged by floodwaters in Merritt and the city of Merritt? And it's not just in Merritt, of course, we've had some impact of flooding in different communities around the province. A number of healthcare facilities have been affected from Port Remfrew to Saanich to Merritt and so on. So I'll have more to report and I'll provide some details on all of that as it develops. We're obviously managing but in places, communities such as Merritt will have more to report later on the physical impact of it. But obviously on our staff and that's our main concern, our staff, our residents and our patients right now, it has significant impact and you're seeing that reflected in the decisions to move people who, under ordinary circumstances, wouldn't want to move and this is the second occasion for those in Merritt. So we're thinking of that and we'll have a follow-up to that and if you want details on particular facilities because there's a fairly long list that's been affected either in smaller ways or in larger ways so I can provide that to you. Ben, do you have a follow-up? I have a second question. This is for Dr. Henry. Dr. Henry, some healthcare workers who got their second shot six months ago but still aren't yet eligible for their COVID boosters are exposed to the virus in their workplaces. Why aren't you offering them the opportunity when Ontario is doing so and we seem to have so many doses available? We are, absolutely. And we have started in terms of healthcare workers with the people who are most at risk so in the ICUs, emergency departments on our COVID wards and people who received the vaccine early. So that means healthcare workers who were prioritized first and people who received it at the shortest interval. So those are the people that we've started already and we are now moving into people who work in the hospital so there's a whole process over the next number of weeks where people will be receiving their invitations and I encourage people who receive their vaccines early on to make sure they're registered on the get vaccinated in the coming days and weeks. So when we announced the program a few weeks ago, that's absolutely part of the plan. So we expect that all healthcare workers will be completed as we head into Christmas. For the next question, we go to Rob Brown, Dawson Creek MIR. Good afternoon, thank you for taking the call. Not to get into too many stats but back in September support for those relying on healthcare workers was 1.5% now it's closer to 70. Wanted to get both the PHO and the health ministers I guess to speak to that as, you know, potential I guess a potential next direction as far as, you know, getting British Columbia and as well as businesses through the winter. So you're talking about employer mandates for employees? You bet. So we do know that we've been recommending for many, many workplaces. It's part of the public service agency has required it here in BC. We've seen many workplaces, many large banks, a number of the industrial camps that we've seen across the north and interior. So actually it is a really important way and we've seen it increase vaccination rates for particularly younger people who have been at workplaces and here in BC we started very early on in prioritizing some of these higher risk workplaces, food production for example, where we saw some very devastating outbreaks and people who were more vulnerable, more made vulnerable by the conditions that they lived in and that they worked in, so we prioritized those populations. We've seen very high uptake in grocery store workers, in poultry workers, in other places, in our workplace settings and yes, this is an important way to ensure worker safety in workplaces and at this point in time to make sure that we're doing everything we can to keep our workplaces open and functioning because when we have outbreaks in those settings, we need to close them down to prevent that transmission to other workers in those settings. So it is one of the measures that has been proven to be that a requirement for all health care workers in the province. Well, I think it's having a very positive effect. What we've seen in the last number of weeks, I think when reported last week, it was around 10,000 new first dose immunizations in that week. I think we had a statutory holiday on November 11th of course and that made it slightly less last week but still very significant number of new first dose immunizations on the remaining 9.3%. That's real progress, continuing progress we're making in that first dose immunization and a lot of that has to do with the effectiveness of the mandates that have been brought into place. I reported in my main report 2885 health care workers remain unvaccinated. Well, it's well over 126,000 who have been vaccinated and the number of unvaccinated health care workers has declined as you can tell by the margin and we see this across sectors and I think in your region in particular the efforts of the municipality and Fort St. John for example have been I think exceptional in promoting vaccination. It's now at 78% and we think we continue to close on 80% there and mandates and workplaces assist with that and support people in that and we're going to continue to push community by community and person by community. We see those rates rise because when they rise we're all safer and we're better prepared to deal with what's going to be a challenging winter in health care so mandates have worked effectively under provincial health orders they've been focused on health care on the health care sector but overall all efforts to encourage vaccination have I think been positive and you see that in the results over the last couple of years of vaccination that gap is closing it's now 3.9% and as of today 20% of all those over 70 have been vaccinated 16% of all those over 65 so you're seeing the progress on vaccination across the board but it is a huge effort contact tracing vaccination is a huge public health effort and the support we're getting from the private sector I would say from unions from businesses has been working hard to make sure that we're all safe and well. Do you have a follow up? You bet just over the last day or so Austria is taking the steps of announcing lockdown restrictions for the unvaccinated only is this something that is in the British Columbia playbook as far as a strategy moving forward and is that something that we could see in this province moving forward? I would say that in most communities even in communities where we have below the average immunization rates were higher than some of the communities that they're seeing in Austria so we are focusing on as I've been saying probably way too often over the last year and a half or two years the layers of protection that we need so the BC vaccine card is going to be an important tool to help us get through this winter so that we can come together safely we can have businesses open safely and mitigate the risk of transmission of everybody in those settings is vaccinated and if as we see those types of requirements in more and more settings that makes it helps put a damper on the transmission that we've been seeing in communities so that is an important tool that is going to be an effect for us this winter and we're going to be looking at making sure we're optimizing it. I've talked quite a bit over the last few weeks about now is the time where masks become important again as that important layer of protection when we're indoors in particular and when we're around people that we don't have usual contact with and we may not know and we know those indoor spaces are the highest risk spaces that we can apply in those spaces so it is making sure that we're optimizing those tools that we have in place now there are additional restrictions as you're well aware in the north because of the rates of transmission and in the north the interior and Fraser East we're looking very carefully at things like the immunization rates in that community in each community we're looking at the transmission rates that we're looking at and we're looking at the vaccine mandates to help us determine what is needed as we go through this next few months but the reality is if you're having gatherings particularly family gatherings as we're going into the holiday season and you have people who are immune compromised you have elders of seniors in your group then only be vaccinated that's the best you can with booster doses some people are still vulnerable and we all as a community need to do our best to protect them. Next question. Hi, thank you for this. I think this is for minister Dix. You talked about the six hospital operating rooms closed at three operating last week there's two closed in cloning general. Are those open in cloning general? How many of the 81 surgeries for the interior are in each of those hospitals? I think the challenges facing those hospitals are the reason there's a reduction operating rooms that well in land is to manage obviously the significant outbreaks or four separate outbreaks of COVID-19 in the hospital and sure we provide a high level of services. As I noted in my presentation it was open for emergency surgeries and those continue to happen there continue I believe to be too closed at cloning general hospital both of those hospitals in terms of their base bed capacity are over 110% of base bed capacity and in the case of royal inland above the base and surge bed capacity so those are two extremely busy hospitals it's the reason why these measures were put in place to protect staff and the significant majority I probably get you the exact number Rob but the significant majority of those surgeries would take place at the most significant surgeries take place at those two important hospitals in any event and so a majority of those surgeries canceled would be if not almost all of them would have been canceled at royal inland or cloning general hospital the ones that have been delayed in interior health. As you know Rob the staff there is doing exceptional work under the circumstances and we intend to get surgeries back up and running as soon as possible but that reflects I think people often ask in terms of interior health about the situation there because we've seen a very positive evolution I'd say in many ways and on August 18 test positivity is about 14.6% it's about 6% now overall but hospitalizations which are a lag indicator remain high and we really need to continue to do the work together in the community and to support our health care teams in interior health so that we can deal with all of the health care issues that people in interior health need and these are with the floods with all that has gone on interior health really challenging times I really encourage everybody to get a new shot right now and we're going to get those operating rooms open as soon as possible and we'll get you I think some more detail on that basically it is those two hospitals and those two hospitals are the ones that are seeing the most significant census against base bed population in the entire province. Rob do you have a follow-up? Yes I'm going to the part of this is the vaccination rate and you give the overall rate for health care workers do you have a breakdown of where the interior is in terms of their vaccination rate for health care workers? Yes I do. Numbers man. Yeah I do Rob and it's we're making significant progress there's a real effort going on in interior health to both encourage people to get vaccinated and to give people access and quick access to vaccination so by health authority of the 2,885 the numbers are 911 in interior health and you'll recall I think that was roughly 1,300 a couple of weeks ago so 911 in interior health 534 in Fraser health 289 in northern health 92 in Providence health care 363 in the provincial health services authority 325 in Vancouver coastal health and 426 in Vancouver Island health less down to 4% not vaccinated in interior health 4% not vaccinated in northern health and either 1 or 2% in the other health authorities so that's significant progress and continuing progress and I think it's a real focus of interior health and I think we're going to see more progress in terms of the number of people over 12 have received their first dose immunization COVID-19 immunization across interior health but it varies as to communities some communities are very hot such as Revelstoke and downtown Kelowna right now relatively high against the overall population other communities such as ender beer lower and we're working hard to raise vaccination rates there. Dr Henry with a bit more context in terms of the A14.2 mutation I guess confirming that it is thought to be more transmissible if that's the case and just how concerned you are given what's happened in the UK you know might this change things significantly over the course of the winter here in BC. So I think it's a reflection it's not a surprise to us when we see this virus moves with people and when it mutates not as fast as viruses like influenza but it does change over time so when you have a lot of transmission in a community you're going to get changes over time. The cases that we have of the AY4.2 are in the Fraser health region right now and we're doing contact tracing as we do for all cases to see where they might have acquired it these are the first ones that are not travel related but we know that this is going to happen so it is a concern but it also reflects that we've been watching for what strains are causing illness and we're following that really carefully through the whole genome sequencing so you can see that posted weekly on the BC CDC website. I think the other challenge we have as I mentioned is that the naming conventions that we have for all of these variants has been changed again through the summer so what we call one thing today may be associated with what we call something different just a few months ago so that part of it is a little bit confusing and challenging for people but in the UK they are still watching this it has another mutation so far they have not seen it cause any reduced effectiveness of vaccine and of course that's something that we're seeing here in BC they have seen slightly increased transmissibility but all of the delta sub lineages, clades or strains that we're seeing here in BC are definitely higher transmissibility than the ones we were seeing even a few months ago so this is something for us to just be aware of and to watch and it reflects of course that we need to do our piece as global citizens to reduce transmission everywhere so that these virus strains change and can confer an advantage. Rob, do you have a follow-up? I do, I take it from your remarks that there's more than one case, I don't know how many cases there are. I just wanted to also say in terms of the medical masks I guess my primary question is is your recommendation now that all of us wear medical masks ideally or is it just those who are immunocompromised that it would be an advisable idea for everyone if we could? I'm a little bit conflicted about medical masks to be honest, the challenges that we have is that they're generally disposable, they can be worn more than once until they're soiled or damaged and I know for some people they can be very irritating and challenging to wear so we do know they filter better so it depends on the situation that you're going to be in and who you're going to be with so if you're going to be in a crowded indoor situation and you have concerns about your own immune system response then medical mask is a good idea and for some people that may mean wearing a respirator in certain situations if you're going to a healthcare setting for example or if you're going to be around a large group of people. So that's the time to be in those settings so avoiding settings that are crowded indoor settings is important as well and as I started off with really the best mask is the one that you're going to wear and that you're going to wear correctly and that you're comfortable wearing so we do know that there is definitely protection both from droplets getting out and from you inhaling droplets when you have a good non-medical mask. They can be reused and cleaned and washed and hung to dry and so it is really balancing that and if you're somebody who's vaccinated who's got a good strong immune system and you're going to be in certain situations then I think wearing a non-medical mask as I do in those indoor situations that we are indoor public spaces is perfectly adequate. But we do know that for people who have had a protection of a medical mask might be important in some situations if they can't avoid going into those indoor settings and one way to make it fit better which can make it more comfortable is to wear a non-medical mask on top to help get it closer to your face. In terms of the AY4.2 it's a single family cluster so they were all exposed at the same time so they were all exposed at the same time. Our last question today goes to Bellpuree CBC. My question is for Dr Henry afterwards Minister Dix if you could answer in French. Dr Henry the additional restrictions that are in place in the north and parts of the interior and Fraser east are set to be removed this Friday are you still on track to be able to lift those on Fridays? I think one of the important things we need to have in place across the board is a baseline for all of us as we head through these next few months. Recognizing where we are with respiratory illness with what's happening globally and what we're seeing in other countries where certain restrictions had been lifted so we're going to be focusing on that I've been working with my teams across the province to come out with those restrictions in certain areas where immunization rates are low, where transmission remains high and that includes the north and some parts of the interior Fraser east so yes expect to see some harmonization is what I'm trying to do but the basics will be the same for all of us we're going into a challenging period we don't want this virus to take off again so what is the things that we need to do to make sure that it includes getting vaccination rates up as high as we can it includes making sure that we're ready and supportive for young people to get vaccinated when it's approved for use for younger children that's going to be important in helping reduce transmission in schools but also in our family settings as well and all of those other layers that we've been using over time so yes those I think the leadership of the public health is considering all the actions in fact we do that every day every day in May a little bit everywhere in the province but I mean that there will be specific measures for the regions where the rate of positivity is high it's mostly the north actually I mean all the positivity is at about 17% although it's less than 4% in the province so it's important there we're going to consider that and there will be an effort to harmonize the measures in the province so it's something to follow without a doubt for the next week but without a doubt we're going to follow that but what is evident is that this period of winter is a very difficult period and a challenge for the health system and for all of us so we have to follow the measures of the public health right now and choose to be vaccinated now against the COVID-19 and also against the COVID-19 pandemic and other vaccinations that are necessary right now it's essential during this period and so all of that remains important in the province but it's something to follow but it's something to consider every day especially in the health system of the province the Fraser and the northern health authority. Dr. Henry just a point on your first answer harmonization so that could mean more restrictions for all and your message is clear about holiday gatherings keep indoor gatherings small but if that message could be confusing considering it comes after capacity limits have been removed in many locations like how safe is it to visit a crowded restaurant or crowded arena or when you are going home to them or to elderly relatives? Yeah so there's different settings and we know that risk changes depending on things like how much the space is so it is less risky in a large open arena for example when people are mostly sitting when they're wearing masks and where everybody who is there has to show proof of vaccination versus an intimate gathering where you're not wearing masks when you're indoors where ventilation is not necessarily that good so it varies by the situation and yes we know that the things that we have in place are to mitigate those risks so we know that right now we're seeing transmission in young children so we have to be aware of that and that's one of the challenges that we will need to look forward to in the future but it really is about what are the conditions that allow this virus to transmit more easily where we see a transmission happening to people even if they're vaccinated and those tend to be those groups that are coming together where you're not generally wearing masks so family gatherings intimate dinners together in an indoor place that doesn't have good information so this virus can transmit very easily. Thank you everyone that concludes today's availability. Thank you.