 Good afternoon, my name is Adrian Dix, I'm BC's Minister of Health, my right is Dr Bonnie Henry, BC's Provincial Health Officer, this is our COVID-19 briefing for BC for Wednesday, February the 9th, we're honoured to be here on the territory of the Laquan and speaking people of the Songhees and the Esquimalt First Nations. And with that, it's my honour to introduce Dr Bonnie Henry. Thank you very much and good afternoon. I would like to start today by recognizing the tragedy that we are continuing to experience earlier today. Our corner, BC's corner, released the report on illicit drug toxicity deaths in BC in 2021. And as we know, our province has lost another 2,224 people to toxic drugs last year. These are our brothers, our sisters, our family members, our colleagues, our friends. And it is such a challenging thing to know that no matter what we do, it's still affecting all of us. I remain firm in my commitment from our office to do everything we can to continue to do, to try and find ways to help people who use drugs, to reduce that shame and stigma that keep us from doing things that we can't do, to reduce that shame and stigma that keeps people who use drugs from reaching out to their friends and their loved ones. And part of that is continuing to push Health Canada with the exemption so that decriminalization of people who use drugs is a key role that we can do. And as well, we're moving ahead and pushing on increasing access for people to a safer supply of drugs during this time, especially now as we're seeing increased mixed drugs, including benzodiazepines, that makes it even more challenging to rescue people. It has also become very apparent that our two health crises are intertwined. And getting through this next phase and getting through the pandemic emergency of COVID-19 is also vital to helping us manage people who are caught up in our toxic drug crisis. But please know, you are not alone. And reach out, reach out to people, let them know, do not use alone. And we will get through this. We have also continued, as you know, to monitor our progress through this pandemic, including reviewing our orders on an ongoing basis. And as always, we are reevaluating all of the measures that we have in place, the data that we have that shows us that we are in this wave as we move through yet another changing virus. I want people to know that all of these changes that we make to orders, to easing of restrictions, that we are done because of how we have worked together to get through this last two years. And I recognize, and we see this all around us, we're all tired of this, we want it to end. But wanting it to end and taking the next steps is our two different things that we need to work on together. And I want you to know that the changes that will be made will be continued to be based on the science, the circumstances of our pandemic here in British Columbia, and a direct result of the millions of people in BC who have done and continue to do everything they can to protect themselves, their neighbors, their communities. And that's how we will get through this changing two years as we adjust to the curves that this virus has shown us. But the reasons we are coping right now with this Omicron wave, again, a different virus that has been challenges in different ways for us is because we are continuing to support each other as families, as communities across this province. The public health tools we have been using, like case and contact management, the type of testing that we are doing, those have had to change and that is challenging. It's hard for us to change our tactics as we are going through this changing environment as well. But we continue to use those measures that work for us individually and collectively, whether it's making sure that you are vaccinated, getting your booster dose, making sure you are staying away from others if you are feeling unwell, washing your hands regularly, all of these things, wearing masks when we are in indoor public places, these are all things right now that are going to get us through this wave. And as we are transitioning, we will get to that point where we can have a sustainable management strategy. We are working through the details of this following every day, what we are seeing in our hospitals, what we are seeing in our communities, and we will be sharing specifics in the next few weeks that we will be inspiring next week and we will continue to monitor those. What you will hear next week will be the details of how we are going to be moving forward. You will hear less about the pandemic as we get through this wave and more about how we continue to manage our personal risks as restrictions are adjusted in step with what we are seeing in terms of transmission and hospitalizations. We are looking at what are the important things that we need to monitor and what is the time frame we need to monitor those in. As you know, we have changed our testing strategy to focus on those people who need a test because it affects their health management or because it is important for them in terms of returning to work. And because of that, a couple of the metrics that we have been reporting on daily, particularly in the last few weeks, we have looked at some of the ones about active cases and people who have been removed from isolation are no longer accurate and they are no longer an accurate reflection of what is happening in the community. So those ones will be removed from our daily surveillance reports and off of the dashboard on the BCCDC website. Again, it is a change because of the changing strategies and how we can continue to be a serious respiratory illness and we will be focusing on that and needs to be treated as that. And the virus is not going away. We can expect that it will change in the future. We only need to look at the amount of transmission around the world and what has happened even in the last few months with the Delta wave and now Omicron to know that we are still at risk of having yet another virus that we can manage and one of the most important things that we have now on our side is that tool of protection through vaccination. So we need to make sure that we are monitoring that and the effectiveness of our vaccine programs, the effectiveness of our boosters and the immunity as we move forward. But we also know that we have a higher level of immunity now across BC because people have been immunized and that gives us an opportunity to look at how we are managing in the weeks ahead. A few days ago, the national advisory committee on immunization provided updated guidance on vaccinations and boosters for people who have had a previous COVID-19 infection. And this is a complicated thing. There is no definitive right answer for what is the optimal time to get vaccinated after you have had an infection. What we do know from real world data and we have said this multiple times is that at least in the short term, people who have been infected with COVID-19 have had an infection do generally have some degree of immunity that lasts for several weeks to months. But it is very variable. And we are seeing that more and more with Omicron as well. That people who are not vaccinated can have a very mild illness and they may not develop both parts of the immune system. We know how much immunity the antibodies in our blood and the longer lasting, stronger protection you get from cell mediated immunity. So we do know it is less clear for Omicron how much protection and how long it lasts. We also know from immunology and vaccinology and what we know about the expanded intervals that it is important to wait a period of time between doses and that helps that cell mediated immunity become longer lasting. So the guidance really confirms the importance of even if you have had an infection that it is important to build up and strengthen your immune system for the long-term through vaccination. So if you have not yet been vaccinated and you have been infected recently with Omicron or with Delta in the last few months, you can wait as long as eight weeks until you start your immunization. Or you can wait eight weeks between your first and second dose after infection. But what this does is it does mean you will have some degree of risk in that period of time. So it really depends on how much virus is circulating in the community, which strain of the virus it is, and also really important things like who you live with and how, what risk they might be if you have a virus that you have been infected with, and what risk they might be if you become infected right now. So what we have been saying, what I have been saying all along, is that it is important that once you have recovered from infection and are no longer infectious to others, that you can receive your vaccine any time after that. If you are somebody who is immunocompromised or has risk factors for severe illness, that is when you should get your second dose at six months from when you have had your second dose, regardless of whether you have had an infection, if you have those underlying conditions that make you more at risk, it is important to get your booster dose right away. If you are otherwise healthy, you can wait as long as three months after that infection. So all of this is slightly confusing. I will tell you that we do know now that that third dose, that booster dose, does increase your protection probably about 50 to 60% protection from infection with Omicron. So we know now that two doses does give really good, strong, longer lasting protection against severe illness like hospitalizations that leads to hospitalizations or deaths. And that continues. But that can be boosted and the protection against the second dose. So right now with the amount of transmission that we are seeing, the advice that I give to people is that it is important to get that booster dose at six months right now, regardless of whether you have had a mild Omicron infection in the last few weeks. As we get to a place where there is less virus circulating, that advice may change and it may be prudent or it may be okay to wait a little longer. And there is a lot of virus around, vaccination helps. So get it when you recover, whether that is your dose one, your dose two or at six months your booster dose. As I mentioned, we are revising our orders and we have been working with industry, particularly the food and beverage industry. And I just want people to know we will be posting additional guidance under the food and beverage industry. Basically at the request of industry to support businesses that don't normally serve food. So that is bars and night clubs in general. And from the very beginning they have been able to repurpose their business or reorient their business to serve food. And there has been more interest in that in the last few weeks since we changed the orders around liquor and in working on this consultation with industry and will be providing the clarification of what they need to do to be able to serve food in those premises. As well, in follow-up to the notice that was given in October, we are moving ahead with the new order in place for regulated health professionals. I have spoken many times about the importance of all of us as healthcare professionals. Everything we can and it is our obligation to make sure that we are taking all of the measures to protect those patients in our care, especially the more vulnerable people that we serve as well. It is important for us to protect our own health as part of being able to continue to contribute to the healthcare of others during this challenging time. It is our responsibility and it continues to be our responsibility in the fall. As you know, we put orders and measures in place for all healthcare workers working in long-term care, acute care and community health settings and for several months now we have been working with the health professional colleges to sort through the details of that vaccine requirement that we gave notice on in October. It is ensuring that we have a consistent supported standard across healthcare workers. And so I had given notice in the order in October that we would give a date once where that would be required and so that date will now be March 24, 2022. We are taking a phased approach so that those few individuals who are not yet vaccinated are able to have that opportunity to get their vaccines and there is a process in place for medical exemptions that can be approved. Colleges will then work with the registrants who are unvaccinated to support them through this process. So those orders will be in place starting next week once we have had the final consultations with the colleges. I think this is a really important measure that brings the same standard to all healthcare workers across the province and is one of the most important measures that we have seen in the last year. We have seen such a high rate of hospitalised, high number of hospitalisations and will help protect us from the unknowns that are certain to happen in the coming year. We are getting through this pandemic but we are not through it yet here in BC or globally. We are progressing because we are looking out for each other, taking care of each other, taking care of the people of vaccination. We are weathering this Omicron storm. It is because of the high level of protection we have from the immunisation in British Columbia and from the measures millions of people in this province are taking every day. This has meant our healthcare workers have had milder illness so that we are able to get back to work. And while the rates of hospitalisation and the rates of hospitalisation are increasing because of vaccination and the severity of illness from Omicron, what we continue to see is that absolute numbers are still staggering and we see that with the high number of people who still have dying from COVID right now. And it is still affecting people differentially. People who are unvaccinated, our elders and seniors continue to be overly aware of what is happening across the province. We are not in the same place everywhere in BC. We know that this wave has passed through in the lower mainland ahead of other parts of the province and we are still stretched very thin. We are also in a different place than many other jurisdictions both globally and across Canada and we will continue to monitor our situation and adjust our measures here in accordance with the COVID-19 pandemic and we will work together to keep our businesses open across the board, keeping schools, childcare centres open and we will be in a better place very soon. This will be a gradual process, finding that balance over this next phase of transition in the next few months and weeks but we can look to tomorrow with hope and optimism and continuing with Dr. Henry and I wanted to provide an update on vaccination on rapid tests on surgical renewal and on the impact of sickness on our healthcare system and on healthcare workers. With respect to vaccination as today we are now at the point of over 11 million administered doses in BC which is an extraordinary achievement of healthcare workers of all of the staff surrounding and supporting our immunization efforts of pharmacists and community pharmacy of people who came and got vaccinated in their massive majority more than 93% less than 7% of people now of adults less than have only 7% to 6.8% I think have not received the first dose immunization from COVID-19 so it has been a joint effort and it's an extraordinary effort. What we've seen for all adults for example is 93% as I say 93.2% first dose 91% second dose now well over 50% 54% have received their booster dose amongst all adults in BC and those numbers are growing every day I had the occasion this weekend to visit two vaccination centers over a couple of days and talk in advance before the COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare workers and those supporting them at vaccination centers everywhere I talked to a naturopathic doctor who has been vaccinating in the Italian cultural center throughout the pandemic who has vaccinated people the youngest person who vaccinated was five the oldest was 106 and how moved and inspired he was by his participation in this extraordinary public health service and our teams around the vaccination centers who have done an exceptional job thank you, thank you, thank you. I wanted to bring an update on the impact of sickness on healthcare workers in the healthcare systems. Health authorities continue to closely monitor sickness levels across health services especially in hospitals in long-term care and in home support. I can report that the week of January 31st to February 1st, that was the day of COVID-19. The number of people who were sick. That is down slightly from the previous week where the number was 17,756. 3,768 in Fraser health, 3,389 in Interior health, 1,702 in Northern health, 1,713 in the provincial health services authority that includes BC emergency health services, 2,450 in Vancouver coastal health, 3,427 in Ontario coastal health and 709 in Providence health care. I want to express again my gratitude to all those health care workers for their endurance and skill and meeting this challenge which is an extraordinary one for people across the public healthcare system. I want to provide an update on rapid tests. We expect to see by the end of February so they are not here yet. 25,652,000 rapid tests to BC. 25,652,000. Clearly the supply of tests to BC is ramping up quickly in the two weeks ahead. We need to continue to ensure easy access to rapid antigen tests for those at higher risk for COVID to ensure timely access to treatment and we will be taking measures to protect some of the supply to meet their needs in the weeks and months to come. However with the expected increase in supply we will be working over the days and we will have more to say about that in the next week or so. As of February 5, 2022 BC received 12,444,000 rapid tests including 2,070,000 that arrived in the last couple of days. 6,575,732 tests have been deployed to key strategic areas. That leaves a current inventory of 5,869,000 tests. Over the next two weeks they are going out now from February 8 to 19. Subject to the timely delivery but these rapid tests in particular have arrived. We will be delivering 4,130,000 test kits in addition to what has already been delivered. So that is 400,000 to COVID testing centers to replenish supply. 860,000 to visitors and symptomatic staff and long-term care and assisted living that is part of our continuing effort in addition to resupply acute care centers for symptomatic healthcare workers and health authority programs. 240,000 to rural, remote and indigenous communities. 1,300,000 more test kits to support K-12 education. 780,000 to post-secondary education. The remaining tests will be distributed to point of care screening program and health authority programs. Again we will be providing more details on how we deal with the 11 million of the 12 million we have now and then with the additional that are coming, we expect coming in the next couple of weeks, we will have more details on our much larger distribution plan in the coming week. Now just an update on surgical renewal. Health authorities report that 6,231 surgeries were completed from January 9 to January 15. From January 30 to February 5, the most recent period, 548 non-urgent scheduled surgeries. At 72 in Fraser Health, 400 in Interior Health, 62 in Island Health, 5 in Northern Health, 9 in the provincial health services authority. We are seeing a cross BC and we continue to see the impact of COVID-19 on their staff and I want to particularly note the efforts in Interior Health. You will note both in terms of healthcare worker days lost and surgeries cancelled, that is where we are facing some of our biggest challenges and where the staff in Interior Health continues to go above and beyond the call to work on behalf of all the people in the region and we are very appreciative and admiring of those efforts from Susan Brown on down. Cumulatively from September 5 to February 5, regional surgeries of COVID-19 and factors including severe health care system and supporting it, we said on a number of occasions that our work is not done and today's surgical renewal update fits that same bill. Our work is not done when it comes to stopping COVID-19 rapid spread. Our work is not done because our work makes a critical difference. There is a lot of talk I think and some talk about changes that may be coming and how and why such changes are happening and what we have succeeded is because we have worked together all of our successes as a province, all of the efforts we have made to support one another have made a difference. In BC I think one of the leaders in the world in vaccination, we have consistently as a people and everyone points to exception but consistently followed public health guidance and public health guidance. When we make announcements that allow us to do things we may not have done before, it's because of those people in particular, the 93% of people with their first dose immunization, the health care workers who have gone above and beyond the call and have given everyone the best possible care in the world against COVID-19, our record in critical care shows it it is outstanding. These are things that we have been working together to do. What makes those successes special is because we did them together and I want to thank all of you today and say that when we look at this and we look at changes that come and whether we like those changes or don't like those changes, the successes we have are our successes and we need to continue to build on that spirit as a province, as a province. If you want to get a reminder to reporters on the line, please press star 1 to enter the queue. You will be limited to one question and one follow-up. Our first question goes to Van Palmer, Vancouver son. Good day, Dr Henry, these vaccination mandates for medical professionals, when you first announced that these were coming last October 5th, you indicated facing lay-off without pay for weeks since last fall, really, why has it taken so long to get the health professionals in line on this and to get them to agree to it when other healthcare workers have been subjected to this for weeks? Yes. So these are all the same healthcare workers. So as you know, there are some people, a smaller proportion of them who are not involved in the other orders that we have. And that's why I put that in the broader healthcare worker orders that they were on notice about that. So it's not, the colleges have all been behind this, and we've been working very closely on them. It turned out to be much more complex than we originally thought. And it really was about how do we determine who's a registrant of which college and how do we determine vaccination rates, how do we make it practical and operational to be able to understand immunization status of registrants. So it really was technical operational issues behind the scenes. It was not the intent. The intent has been agreed to from the very beginning. And it is an important long-term strategy. It is what has gotten us through this far, the mandates, particularly if we look at, for example, long-term care, how important it has been to have that level of protection the best that we possibly can for every healthcare provider. And it's about providing protection to the public. So yes, we've been had an ongoing, and some of it is legalese around how the colleges are organized, and some of them are going through transitions. So it will affect things like bylaws and how those are in the future. And I really do believe it is a strong basis for something that we have been talking about for a long time, which is the importance of us as healthcare professionals, regulated health professionals to do everything we can do to protect ourselves and our patients. And part of that is about immunization, not just for COVID, but for other things that we know can be spread in a healthcare setting. So that's a future discussion, whether we're talking influenza, measles, other important vaccine preventable diseases as well. Vaughn, do you have a follow-up? Yes, please. There have been several media reports recently about doctors here in BC and elsewhere, but here in BC spreading quite disturbing misinformation about COVID-19 and about vaccines. Does that concern you? Are the College of Physicians and Surgeons dealing with this problem? Are they calling these people to account for this? Yes, does it disturb me? Absolutely it does. I think it's reprehensible, to be honest, to spread what is clearly untruths, and particularly when people have very legitimate concerns and questions about these vaccines, and to be out there saying that and calling yourself a legitimate healthcare professional in this province or in this country is really very much a concern. I know there has been complaints, at least I've read about that to the College, about the professional practice. The College has put out standards and I can't speak for how they're dealing with this, but I do think it is very clear. Talking with some of my colleagues in First Nations where misinformation and truly lies have been spread that causes fear, that leads to people not taking preventive action, not protecting themselves, and that has led to serious illness and deaths in people, and I put that squarely at the hands of people who are spreading this type of misinformation. Yes, you can see that. I think it is a very egregious breach of our responsibilities as healthcare professionals. And yes, the College has a process to deal with complaints, the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the other colleges. I would say that, as you know, we announced the requirement for vaccination, I believe it was August, to be put in place when it was put in place, both in long-term care first and then across the healthcare system, just to put in context how many people that applied to is about 50,000 people in long-term care, I think it was 48,000, but 138,000, or roughly 128,000, I guess, people across the healthcare system. So that applied to that group, the supplies, and so many of those, of course, the large share of those are members of health professional colleges already and have already are dealing with the vaccine requirements. So this is the additional, and I think like Henry would say that, I think as well that there's been very strong support amongst the health professional colleges working through it to ensure that this requirement applies to all health professions, and it will. And obviously those issues are things that issues around the advice being provided by registrants are issues that the colleges deal with and deal with on a regular basis. So the college probably won't comment on existing proceedings at this point. We are also making some significant changes to the system of health professional colleges, you know, and we'll expect to see those fairly soon that will both reduce the number of colleges and increase our ability to work through these issues in a clear and transparent way, and we will. Next question we go to Richard Sussman, Global News. Just logistically to that point, Minister, are all the colleges listed on the BC website, are all of the people that work within those colleges now required to be under the mandate? And a more philosophical question, there has been, you know, a lot of talk over the last few days about vaccine mandates and other jurisdictions, both globally and here in Canada, where largely people are getting rid of vaccine mandates rather than putting them in. Even here, Kevin McLeod, a well-known doctor in the presence of social media writes, vaccine mandates additionally made sense. I supported them at this stage of the pandemic, they do not make sense. So what is the justification for continuing mandates, not just for workers, but for the general public, and then just hopefully some nuts and bolts on exactly who falls under this? Yeah, so I can tell you it's all of the regulated health professionals under the Regulated Health Professionals Act. So that includes a whole list and we'll be putting out a bulletin that has all of those listed just to make it easier for you, but it does include everybody under the Regulated Health Professions Act. In terms of mandates, I think there's a lot of disparate voices out there that are using the term to mean different things. So these in terms of vaccine mandates for healthcare workers in a healthcare setting, we also know that there are mandates for many other settings where it is both a workplace issue, where it's a protection of your colleagues and doing the best that we can to have a safe workplace. Those types of mandates are very effective and we've seen that. What we have seen is people are changing the use of things like the BC vaccine card and again, also a very effective tool that was not meant and is not meant in BC to be there forever and that's why we put end dates on the BC vaccine card. So that is a different mandate and I think those two messages have been put together in terms of where somebody who's vaccinated, what activities they can access and how. So there are a number of different things put together in that. We do see both of those as being effective tools in certain aspects and certainly it is the vaccine mandate in healthcare that has made a huge difference in our ability to manage through this wave. And I some people say, you know, Omicron is so transmissible and vaccines are not preventing all of the transmission, which is absolutely true. And we do get a boost to that prevention of transmission when people get their booster dose. But it is giving very strong protection against hospitalization and severe illness from people who would have. If I think about this, if we did not have the level of immunity in our province because so many people have the protection from vaccines and Omicron was the first strain out of the gate, we would be in very dire straits. And you just can't imagine it. If we're looking at right now, the percent of people who, you know, the rate of hospitalization is about a third of what we were seeing with Delta. But the numbers of people getting infected because it can cause breakthrough infection both from previous infection and breakthrough infection from vaccine, if we had not had that protection of vaccination, our hospitals would have been flooded. As it is, the rates of transmission are markedly lower in people who are vaccinated. And that still has translated into the largest numbers of people in hospital that we have seen. And sadly, largest numbers of people dying, even though the rate of death from the Omicron infection is so much lower than what we were seeing with Delta, for example. So we cannot say that we would be able to get through this wave. But the other thing that's really, really important is it has what has allowed us to get through this, but we are not through this. And you just need to talk to some of our colleagues about the evolution of viruses. And when you have this much pressure because so many people are infected and the virus is rapidly changing and mutating, the inevitability that we will see another variant and that it's the pressure is for it to be more transmissible and potentially cause more severe illness. So those are the things that we have to prepare for. Your booster dose today, you're getting vaccinated today is what is going to keep us safe and you safe through this next year that we're still going to be dealing with this as a global issue. We have such a high rate of protection from vaccination that we are going to, I believe, have a period of time that we can regroup and that we'll be able to do so many more things together. But that's because we've had vaccine mandates. We've because we've had the effective use of the BC vaccine card and because people are doing the right thing in BC. And just one final thing to everybody. We have invitations to book now and those increased significantly this week because we were adding a lot of young people 12 to 17 who are now eligible for booster doses. We have about 850,000 people who have received invitations. We have not yet booked and we have lots of open appointments, particularly in community pharmacy. So I include I asked people for their health, for the health of the ones they love and the health of their communities to book their booster dose appointment today. If they haven't received their first dose, of course, to book that appointment today. And I think if you look at the order under the order, regulated health professionals who are vaccinated with one dose before March 24, 2022 may continue to work as long as they receive a second dose 28 to 35 days late after their first dose. But that says that that all regulated health professions will need to be vaccinated by March 24, 2022, which is which all of that information, including the list of colleges and health professions, regulated health professionals, is in the information bulletin. Richard, do you have a follow up? Dr. Henry, you've mentioned a few different times, you know, the way that we contact trace, the way that we test has changed dramatically. You also keep talking about how these restrictions and mandates have proven successful in the past, but Omicron is different and the spread is obviously different now. So what data are we looking at towards the future? And what do you say to industry who's waiting for next week with an anticipation that some things will be eased and others will not? What do you say to them as they try to plan, especially for those industries like hospitality who have been hit so hard by this pandemic and have complained off it about how hard it is to prepare when they're in essence finding out sort of last minute about whether they'll be able to resume and in this case, get back to 100% capacity, as some may be anticipating and others may not be anticipating. Yeah, so I think we've tried to signal where we're going and we look at a whole variety of things as you know. We're trying to take that focus away from daily numbers and looking at trends over time. So we are seeing some very positive signs in trends over time. And that means that some of the measures that we put in place, particularly the ones that are expiring next week, that we put in place because we didn't understand didn't have all those details of what Omicron was going to look like and whether that level of immunity we had was going to be enough to keep us from being swamped, if you will. But so I think I will also say we do have regular meetings with representatives from industry and not everybody's connected to those. And I know that means it's challenging. And we are still consulting and going through the processes with different groups because as soon as we make one change, other questions come up. And that's one of the things that's reflected today in the guidance on how liquor-serving only businesses can provide meals and why that's coming up today as opposed to two weeks ago when we had revised the orders again. So it is an iterative process and an ongoing process. But we are in a relatively positive place, but not the same everywhere. We're still in a very strained place in interior health as you know and in parts of the north. So these are all things that we factor in. We look at absenteeism rates. That's one of the things we're measuring both in schools in hospitals, in workplaces. So there are a number of different factors that go into the decisions that come in. And I also, my team, you know, we are thinking longer term. Where are we in this point in the pandemic? What does it mean that we've had so many people who now have an exposure or an experience of Omicron? And thankfully, because of this high level of immunization, most of that has been relatively mild. So what does that mean for schools? What does that mean for workplaces? What does that mean for some of the broader mandates we have in place? And you know, obviously I'm looking at where, you know, when is the BC vaccine card no longer needed? So those are things that we're thinking about over the longer term or the next weeks to months. But over the longer term, if we think globally around pandemics and something that I'm also spend a lot of time working through and thinking through. And I've talked about this many times, how we look at what's happening in the UK. I was on a call early this morning with Israel about discussing what's happening with their pandemic and what are they seeing. So we take the advice that we're seeing from places around the world. And ours is always a little bit different. And we try to project what's going to happen longer term as well. And as always, we are seeing what we have learned is there's a seasonality to coronavirus, at least in our hemisphere in our country. And so we need to be able to ensure that we're preparing and that we have contingency for the next respiratory season. This is going to be a serious respiratory illness that is with us at least for another year. We'll know more by this time next year about its patterns. And we know more in the next few weeks about how we're going to get through that. Next question goes to Shannon Patterson, CTV. Hello, Dr. Winnery. I'm returning to your question and I'm hoping I can get a clearer answer. The line to the hospital yard, Dr. Kevin McLeod, who treats COVID patients himself, says it's time for BC to remove the vaccine passport requirements for endurance venues like restaurants because they're no longer serving their intended purpose, with Macron being spread among both the vaccinated and unvaccinated now, as it shouldn't be political and it should go now. So do you think the vaccine cards do still serve scientific medical purpose right now? And if so, what is that purpose? Absolutely. From the very beginning, there's two reasons that we have the BC vaccine card in place. One of them, of course, is incentives for the discretionary activities that it applies to, those limited number of discretionary activities. It's incentive to encourage people to be vaccinated. That was really important, especially at first. But it's also all of those settings, and we chose those particularly are ones that are indoor settings where we know this spreads more rapidly. And we're seeing that with Omicron. So now, yes, it's a difference. The difference in spread between somebody who's vaccinated and unvaccinated, it's like, I guess it's like saying Christine, Sinclair and I both play soccer. There's a qualitative difference to that. And one of us may be more likely to score a goal than the other. So when we are looking now at those settings that are higher risk indoor settings, yes, there's still a risk that people who are fully vaccinated in those settings may transmit Omicron to each other. But we also know very clearly now that they're very unlikely to end up with severe illness, and they're unlikely to end up in our hospitals, which is one of the most important goals that we have, where an unvaccinated person, we cannot say that. So it has switched in terms of not solely focusing on reducing risk of transmission, although it does that particularly if people have their booster dose on board, but making sure that if we have large groups of people together in those indoor settings, that we're not going to have a surge of people hospitalized because of transmission. So there are different factors that we look at at different points in this. And right now, there is still with the amount, I mean, just look at even the PCR testing curve that we have, which is limited. It doesn't tell us all of transmission in the community. We're still at the highest levels of transmission we have ever had in this pandemic. So there is absolutely a purpose to why we are continuing to use the BC vaccine card and those specific higher risk settings. Shannon, do you have a follow-up? Alberta is getting rid of theirs tonight at midnight. Saskatchewan is getting rid of theirs next Monday. You had said for BC, it would be the end of June, which would obviously put a three and a half months later than neighboring provinces here. Are you comfortable with BC being that much of an outlier or can we expect a new timeline next week? I think we're not the outlier. We think about how many provinces and territories we have. On what I've said very clearly from the beginning that I was extending it to June 30th and that we would reevaluate as we go about when it's most useful and when we can reach that point of balancing which has been our intent the entire time of the need for it with the amount of transmission and hospitalizations and deaths that we're seeing. I think this is one of the real advantages that we've had in BC with Dr. Henry's leadership. You don't want to comment on other jurisdictions. I just say that significant measures have been announced and then withdrawn here in BC with respect to the BC vaccine card. We said we were going to do it. We put it in place in such a way that it was easy to download and to use. More than 4 million British Columbians have the BC vaccine card. We said we were going to apply our requirement for vaccination, a proof of vaccination in the healthcare system and we delivered on that and it has had innumerable positive effects for patients and for healthcare staff. And there has been fewer changes in orders in BC. We've had as consistent an approach to public education ensuring that children to the maximum possible degree can benefit during a difficult time of pandemic. There has been consistency and the reason there has been consistency has been the thoughtful advice and guidance of Dr. Henry and her team. And that team includes dozens and dozens of people on the public health side and of course hundreds of thousands of people in the healthcare system side and all of the other people who have made these things work like people who work in grocery stores and people who work in pharmacy and people who work in our distribution networks and everyone else. All of those people have been part of it. So we've had a consistent approach. I know it feels like when you're here that these are changes because so much of it has been unprecedented over two years that in fact there's been a consistent thoughtful approach. Last week Dr. Henry talked about what people can expect around the time the orders expire. It gave people lots of notice of that and that is because we want to make sure that people understand what's happening. But I think what you're seeing is the effect of public health leadership that has made such a difference for everyone in BC. It's led by Dr. Henry and she's the public face of it but I think she'd agree it includes a huge team of people around her who have been part of that success. Next question, Caden Fanshawe, CKPG. Caden are you on mute? No, I am not. Thank you. We can hear you. Please go ahead. Can you hear me? Okay. Sorry, thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to get Dr. Henry and Minister Dix's thoughts on a situation here in Prince George happened last weekend. Essentially a nightclub that had been ordered closed opened up here was not shut down. They were not letting people in wearing masks. They made you take it off of the door. They're also not checking vaccine passports and posting several messages about freedom and the truck convoy and stuff as well. They planned to open back up this weekend but yeah there's videos circulating online of a ton of people indoors not wearing masks, dancing, singing, doing all the things you're not allowed to do but I just wanted to get Dr. Henry or someone's thoughts on that. I think freedom is something that we can be very proud of what we have. We have freedom to protest. We've seen that through many different important issues over the last little while but we also have responsibilities to each other and you know it's probably when you see those types of things in people acting out trying to make their point in their own limited way. I understand why people do that. It can be frustrating, it's tiring, it's hard to go through this but really what we need to do is understand that it is all of our collective actions that are getting us through this and that make that you know basically a slap in the face to some of the healthcare workers have been working so hard for so long. I understand that people are frustrated and we want to do things that we have been limited in for the last little while but it is because we've pulled together and we've supported each other and we've supported those people who continue to be at high risk and you know I don't know what to say but it is we see that some people and I have had a lot of empathy as you know over the last two years for younger people who have had very little control over things who have had lack of job prospects and especially in the hospitality industry whose universities were shut down for a period of time who didn't have those important celebrations in life. So what we need to do is continue to work together so that we can put this behind us for once and for all and be able to support and get back to those important measures and those important celebrations in our life soon. I think we all agree that my freedom to swing my arm depends on who's standing in front of me or if anyone's standing in front of me and I don't have the freedom to swing my arm if someone is standing close to me because they might be hurt and that would affect their freedom. There is no rights without responsibilities and you know I have to say that one of the things that I am most proud of of healthcare workers particularly during the period of the Delta variant where we had large-scale levels of vaccination a huge number in that case of unvaccinated people who are in intensive care across BC there continues to be to this day a very significant number of unvaccinated people in intensive care people will get the best care possible and they are the best care in the world in those circumstances here in BC by our critical care teams because we all have of course the right to make mistakes but I think we also have to appreciate the rights of other people the rights of people to be treated with respect in their homes and in their communities and that includes Ottawa that includes every every community in our province to be treated in our country to be treated with respect and not to have and so people if people want to assert their right and dramatically and negatively affect other people's basic rights well that's not a Canadian value that's not an expression of rights there are rights and there are responsibilities and we have I think in BC you know and just to put it in context 93.3% of people vaccinated 6.8% of people not vaccinated there is a split there but that split is 16 to 1 just to put it in context and the people who have been vaccinated done so for their own safety for their community safety and I'm very proud of them that doesn't mean we have mandatory vaccination we don't accept in certain circumstances have been defined by provincial health orders and by others but it does mean that we all have those responsibilities as with those rights and I would say to everybody that we need to think of other people in our community as well and I'm proud of the people of BC who have again and again and again in this pandemic done that even at cost to themselves I'm so proud to live in this place and I'm so proud of them and when there are successes they are their successes. Kate and do you have a follow-up? Yeah yes please yeah thanks for that I just wanted to follow up obviously many are wondering including those who went to the nightclub and those who may plan to go to one in the future is there any timeline another wasn't an end date on that closure order in particular but is there any timeline anything better that you can talk about here today? We're going to be the the gathering and events orders as you know are coming up for review on the 16th and we'll be putting out in detail on the 15th what we're doing for the next few weeks. For the next question we go to Cole Schisler about Black Press. Hi there thanks so much for taking my question so given that disabled people are disproportionately impacted by COVID has the province been consulting with any disabled people in public health policy development and if so who and if not will the province commit to consulting with disabled people on COVID policy? Yeah we have spent quite a lot of time with people with disabilities and the self-advocacy groups particularly community living BC and in my office Dr. Danielle Bain Smith has been meeting with the number of advocacy self-advocacy groups and community living BC on a weekly basis at least and we do take a lot of consideration we prioritize people with disabilities for vaccination and many for testing for support we've included people who work with people with disabilities particularly in group housing and other settings in our our vaccine mandates because we recognize the importance of the care that's provided by support workers in those settings and how it can be a risk and we've been monitoring actively people with disabilities who are infected who are hospitalized and who've died from COVID and sharing that information with the disability communities and the self-advocates so that is something we have been working very and I'm very proud of my team and the work that they've been doing and and particularly through community living BC and then the the teams that that are affiliated with that organization. Cole do you have a follow-up? Yeah so given that we know that COVID and home crown especially can be spread through aerosol transmission which floats in the air it lingers in spaces I'm just wondering why it is that you know health care professionals have expressed that they've been denied access to N95s people entering hospital are told not to wear their N95 and are given the blue surgical mask I just can you explain why the province is so staunchly opposed to allowing people to wear N95s in health care settings and can you also explain why measures like hand washing and plexiglass barriers are more effective at preventing transmission than an N95 respirator. So I think that's part of the crux of the issue right there they barriers hand hygiene they're all layers of protection respirators are a layer of protection so it's not one is more effective than the other they all need to be in place in different settings and risk is different in different settings we have always understood that and I've talked for a year and a half now since we've understood this more in more and much more detail about where things are are riskier and so indoor settings when you're crowded together when people are doing certain things in a health care setting we have what we call hierarchies of control so there's a whole variety of steps that are taken to prevent transmission of infections including COVID and that includes depending on the setting the appropriate risk assessment and wearing of respirators when needed but when we're talking about visitors and patients going into a health care setting with a mask that they may have got in the community we don't have an understanding of the quality of that personal mask how well it's been cared for so we do require people to use the standard quality new medical masks that are very effective along with the other measures that are in place in health care settings at preventing transmission of infection so this is a whole spectrum of things and depending on the setting there's a different level that's needed of different types of protection and it same goes for plexiglass barriers in a grocery store we're face to face with somebody we know that that that is where you're likely to be exposed to more of the potentially infectious droplets and so having a barrier is effective along with wearing masks along with keeping distance along with ventilation so it's not one or the other it is having all of those layers of protection in the community and the hierarchy controls in our affection prevention and control programs in all health care settings we have time for one more question we'll go to benit brach cpc hi dr henry um as we look towards a gradual listing of restrictions in the next couple of weeks how much flexibility is being built into the future plan how quickly will bc be able to respond when the next variant of concern presents itself and can we please get an answer in french as well yeah you know those are things that we've been looking at very closely particularly you know i talk about how we are looking at what's happening in different scenarios around the world and around the country and and even within bc so it is important we're much of our our planning already and what we need to plan for going forward is based on contingencies and having looking at different scenarios that might happen so for example i i think it's unlikely from what we've been seeing that we'll need to do a broad immunization program for everybody in the future but i think it is a probability that changes as we're going through the months and into respiratory season that we may have to immunize those people who are most vulnerable and we know that's our elders and seniors and the very young so we need to be able to plan for that another thing that's really really important is we've seen that much of our restrictions that we've had in place have been because we we've not had the capacity in our health care system and we saw that vividly in the north during the delta wave so being able to take the time that we have when when transmission is low to try and ensure we're we're building up our health care system increasing our capacity so that we have that surge capacity when when it's inevitably going to be needed is something that i know the ministry and the minister we're working on so those are all contingency plans that we're looking at what we would like to be and i think we're moving to that place through this transition period is never having to go back to broad societal restrictions and that's what we you know what we're planning to what are the things that we need to have in place so that we don't have to do those things again and we've recognized and we have seen in this last two years how important and how interconnected everything is whether it's keeping schools open and childcare open so that people can work because making sure that you are able to to put food on the table is such an important part of our mental and physical and emotional health so all of those things are interconnected and being able to provide people with the care that they need in our health care system whether it's from whatever's causing the latest infection or whether it's care for everything else is also really important so yeah those are really important machinations and why we're taking a slowly progressive and thoughtful approach to how we get through this next few weeks and months and we're going to continue to do that we have to stay prudent and to continue to work together but what we have is a lot of experience now with the covid-19 this experience was hard to learn during the last two years and so we're going to continue to use this experience of our specialists in the field including Dr Henry and O and we're going to continue to do work so there's a lot of flexibility to respond of course because we don't know what will come in the months to come but also to ensure that the preparation is as much in a system of health as in the society to ensure that we are ready for all the possibilities Benit did you have a follow-up yes please after Dr Henry given that now typically healthy people are being told they can wait up to three months after on the chronic infection before getting a booster do you think that might account for the number of booster dose appointments that are going unfulfilled right now a lot of people unfiltered a lot of people in BC had on the front in January and can we get an answer in French as well yeah I think that's part of it I know the pharmacy association and our immunization programs have been asking people you know what is the reason and we've been trying to understand why some people aren't booking when even when they're eligible part of it is that there's a group of people that are not yet eligible at that six months and that interval is important some people are absolutely they they've had their two doses and they think that's enough there are people who have had infection recently and yes we do now know that if you've vaccinated it can give you a good boost but it's not as long lasting so getting that booster is important and it's a it's a challenging thing to know as I mentioned the advice from nasi is is complex and in the fine print it says you know we don't actually know yet what the optimal interval is between an infection and getting your your your next dose and it depends a lot on the situation you are in so I would encourage people even if you've had omicron in the last month if you're at that six month place and you're healthy you know you can wait as long as three extra months but if you're in a situation where you have others around you who are more at risk or if you're in a congregate living setting for example or in a community where there's a lot of people at risk then it's good to get that booster now because we are now seeing that it does provide additional protection against infection and it provides a good strong boost to your cell mediated immunity for the future and just say the the number of appointments available is partly the the massive response both by public health and by our pharmacy sector and our pharmacist has done an exceptional job in providing and making available booster shots across bc and certainly if you look over 65 for example both 78 percent of people have received their booster doses and 78 percent on the 91 percent have received their second doses who are eligible so that is roughly 86 percent of that group who have received their booster shots so that's a that's an impressive number it's less in in other age categories partly because of the six month criteria partly because there are some there are clearly appointments open and people waiting for they get their booster dose and I would just say to all to everyone today there is an opportunity to do so it makes you safer your community safer everyone's safer and to get your booster doses and we're going to continue to to promote that booster doses for people for including for those who are starting to get them in the 12 to 17 category as well as first and second doses right now for those 5 to 11 for children 5 to 11 right now we're roughly 54 percent of that group who received their first dose immunization roughly 10 or 11 percent their second dose because that's just started happening and we want to continue to encourage that as a way to make all of us safer je dirais en français que il y a la toisienne dose était sous pour la grande majorité des gens de de 3e âge c'est-à-dire des gens qui ont qui ont plus de 65 ans on va travailler avec ces groupes là c'est pas une question je pense de des gens qui ont qui se étaient trouvés positive pour covid-19 mais je dirais à peu près 75 % des gens qui ont été invités en déjà reçu leur troisième dose et ça c'est un peu ça c'est comparable à la situation partout dans le pays dans le pays n'est-ce pas c'est comparable à ce qui se passe en ontario etc on continue à l'alphaire je pense qu'il y avait 25 000 doses hier à l'université un peu partout dans l'enclam des pétaniques et ça continue donc il faut continuer à y travailler on va le faire et j'encourage tout le monde qui ont reçu leur invitation de de de trouver un rendez-vous avec nous pour leur troisième dose thank you very much merci beaucoup c'est next tuesday