 Good afternoon, my name is Adrian Dix, I'm BC's Minister of Health. We received, shall we say, quite a few requests for comment from members of the media today. So I thought it would be easier just to talk to you all at once in this forum. That works. I'll say a few things to begin with about the announcement by the federal government with respect to travel and other issues today and events related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Won't be like a regular briefing, so I'll speak from members of the media for hopefully six to nine minutes and then I'll be happy to take the questions that you have. First of all, with respect to the travel guidelines by the federal government, not to travel internationally for non-essential travel. As the premier has noted in his statement, we support this effort, we support this advice, we support these guidelines, and it's pretty simple. If it's not necessary, don't go. We're seeing a very significant growth in the Omicron variant of concern across the world and in different parts of Canada. Here in British Columbia, yes, but even more so in other parts of Canada. Such that as we heard from Ontario today, there's an expectation that the Omicron variant of concern will become the dominant variant of concern in that province. I did consider a very short time ago we had not heard of it. That tells you how quickly events have been and are moving across the country and indeed across the world. And so I think the advice by the federal government with respect to travel is timely as the premier has said and it's pretty straightforward. If it isn't essential, don't go. And even though this is immensely disappointing and I know that many people have been hoping to get a break away from British Columbia at this time of year, it's also important and I think critical really to put your health, the health of the community first and that requires I think taking very seriously the guidance of the federal government. I'd also note that people have to, I think, exercise the same caution in traveling across Canada. As we've noted, Quebec and Ontario in the case of this variant and it hasn't been always the case but in the case of this variant have more cases right now and you see the growth of this variant of concern in those jurisdictions. You'll note that travel involving a rugby tournament led to the variant of concern going to different parts of the country including British Columbia. So I think the message is if you're not vaccinated, definitely don't travel that health measures are changing in different jurisdictions and change today in different jurisdictions and I would expect more change to follow in the days that come and so whether you're traveling around the world or across Canada, this is the time to exercise caution across the board. I wanted to note that we have seen in the last couple of days larger case counts in BC. We haven't seen the same increase in hospitalization of course and in critical care and in fact critical care is down today. I understand that the dashboard has been refreshed in our statement the update or the information bullet in their own cases will be out shortly but needless to say what we're seeing is an increase particularly in Vancouver Coastal Health which has seen extraordinarily low case counts relative to the population in recent months. We've seen an increase in cases there over the last number of days. Some of this is related as it has been at different times in the pandemic to informal social gatherings and in other words not organized social gatherings but informal social gatherings and we've seen some large clusters of cases as a result of that and you see that reflected in the numbers in those places. With respect to public health measures as Dr. Henry said yesterday it is important I think especially in this holiday period to exercise caution in all that we do medical health officers in the different health authorities have meeting with Dr. Henry today obviously others involved in those meetings including myself and I would expect Dr. Henry will be reviewing actively any changes to public health orders that will be required in the coming days to address the increase in case counts. Again not just related to the Omicron variant of concern in fact of course the vast majority of our cases in British Columbia continue to be the Delta variant. With respect to with respect to other issues I'd just say that our third dose immunization campaign continues to go well I just want to give you some details about this and I know that we announced our third dose strategy for all British Columbians at the time over 18 and now over 12 our strategy on October the 26th that everyone would be in line with the booster dose consistent with public health recommendations those recommendations were essentially supported about a month later by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization which met this week and continues to support those time lines and those measures six months and eight months and as of now our campaign is going very well as of yesterday when we had one of our bigger days so far 633,831 British Columbians have received their third dose that represents 60% of all those over 70 45% of all those over 65 and 14% of all those eligible British Columbians over 12 so we're making significant progress and every effort is going to be made and you saw that yesterday with the significant expansion of our program to pharmacies it's happening faster than expected 500 pharmacies by the end of this week a thousand in the month of January that every effort is going to be as quickly as possible to British Columbians consistent with public health guidelines it's important that we follow the best advice with respect to vaccine effectiveness and that's what we're doing and that's what we've been doing since we laid out the policy on October 26 I'll note the real very significant success of this effort in long-term care today the outbreak at Laurier Manor which is an assisted living facility in Prince George was declared over and down to two outbreaks in health care facilities in the province one at Ridge Meadows and Maple Ridge the other at Ponderosa in Kamloops so I think all of those are important considerations on our third dose campaign which will continue and continue to involve more and more people and especially locations including and especially pharmacies I want to note further that with respect to rapid testing as we proposed as we noted yesterday the British Columbia has of course been waiting for at-home tests which are on-label at-home tests which are not yet available in wide numbers in Canada and it had been our expectation based on the advice we received that we'd see them in November and then December and you'll recall the answers we gave at that time it now appears and so we said yesterday that they won't be available until January and they may not be available in the numbers that we would hope in spite of all of the numbers announced today by the federal government a relatively smaller subset a relatively small subset of those numbers will be at-take-home rapid tests so we'll be looking out our rapid testing plan coming up next Tuesday in terms of how we intend to both use those tests and to enhance them by using other tests that can be used individually more easily by people our rapid testing campaign is our effort 550,000 rapid tests used in BC about 35,000 a day right now is expanding and we need to as well continue to review our capacity to do PCR testing the gold standard test which is really required to follow up from rapid testing as you know we've expanded our capacity of our system to do roughly 20,600 tests a day we still have that capacity that capacity is in place I think yesterday the numbers the 589 test positive numbers is based on approximately 16,000 PCR tests that took place in British Columbia so it will be specifically there'll be significantly more access to rapid tests we're happy that more are coming we'll be getting our share of those in the new year as they come forward which is approximately when we divide things up 13.5% of the Canadian population and as we did with vaccination and other things you'll see a systematic campaign effort focused on those who need it most and to reduce transmission for those who are the most vulnerable and to assist people in dealing with this pandemic so you'll be seeing that shortly action so that people will see action on rapid testing you'll see soon and hopefully continued the continued efforts to use public health orders and guidance to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and again these extraordinary efforts to vaccinate British Columbians I want to encourage everybody if they're asked to get vaccinated to get vaccinated I want to say finally that in our childhood immunization campaign well two more things as of last night 77,857 children had received their first dose immunization with the child specific formula of the Pfizer vaccine that's 77,857 that's 22% of all those in the category approximately 146,000 registrations have been received and we encourage parents to register their children for that effort and finally I've just had a meeting with my federal and provincial health colleagues and one of the questions I have asked and continue to ask is about the availability of antivirals you'll know that there's one that's been developed by the multinational drug company Pfizer and other multinational drug company and both of those are under currently under health Canada review but the government of Canada has procured those drugs and can only be used pending approval by health Canada by the regulatory arm of health Canada and we expect that to happen sometime early in the new year and we look forward to that and hope to have that in addition to our other means of responding to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic finally I just want to thank all of our health care workers today and every day for all that they're doing across British Columbia and we have over 9200 patients in our acute care hospitals we have a large third dose vaccination campaign a significant childhood vaccination campaign our ongoing vaccination campaign 1600 contact tracers around the province we're doing more PCR testing than we have ever done in BC and we're going to continue to be there for you but this work isn't done in the abstract it's done by health care workers health care professionals and we're supported by people across the province and as always I wish to take thank you and I'm happy to take your question Minister a reminder to media on the line please press star 1 to enter the queue you'll be limited to one question and one follow-up for the first question today we start in the room Alan check on behalf of CTV Vancouver please go ahead Minister Dix what's your advice to British Columbians who have already planned trips outside of Canada and are now trying to figure out what to do well it's I've had the opportunity to respond to questions about this today you can imagine given the federal announcement that we've received lots of questions and lots of people in those circumstances the advice from Health Canada is very clear if it's not essential don't go and you know right from this podium people will recall in February and March of 2020 discussing these very issues and the cost to many people who did go and I don't this is not a question of recalling or holding people accountable because the circumstances were so new at the time but we've had this experience and when the officials at Health Canada say if it's not essential don't go then and that's supported by public health officials everywhere then I think that's good advice to take and so my advice unfortunately is because I know people have plans and I know it has cost for them is that it's necessary to follow that advice you know we talk about these cases we have a serious number of cases in BC today 589 I think it is across the province today and in the United Kingdom apples to apples as population they have 10 to 11 times in many cases in France they have 10 times in many cases in Germany they have 8 to 9 times in other words we have the same level of transmission of COVID-19 as they do in the United Kingdom which has an advanced health care system and has and in the national health service we would have today approximately 5.5 to 6,000 cases of COVID-19 in British Columbia today and so one has to take that into account and the fact that we now for the second time with measures the federal government took measures a couple of weeks ago and now is taking more measures and more advice today you can see that the situation is evolving and we can't be certain about what the situation will be two weeks from now but it is unlikely that it will be better than it is today so my advice is that there will be other trips but you only have one health and one life and your health is vitally important to that life and so follow the advice for the next question we go to Andrea Wu Hi thanks for taking my question regarding the dosing interval for kids 5 to 11 Nathie currently recommends 8 weeks in between the first and second shots but are parents in BC able to reduce that to say 3 or 4 weeks if they wanted to? Well right now Andrea we are focused on first doses and so I wouldn't expect that to be the case but that advice would come from Dr. Henry and her team and their immunization team and their recommendations but right now as noted we have vaccinated 70,000 of the 349,000 eligible or about 22% and we will be working through that and this is a vaccine of course that has been designed for children 5 to 11 it is now we have 77,000 children vaccinated in BC a huge number in the hundreds of thousands and tens of millions around the world so this is a vaccine that has proven its safety and proven its effectiveness not in studies but in the real world and I recommend everyone register for the moment though I wouldn't expect to change in that in that guidance but right now what we are trying to do and what we are focused on is getting everyone their first dose and that is going quite well but I would say if you look at the overall numbers we have vaccinated 37% book to appointments 42% registered that we need to get those registrations up because as you can see we are rapidly closing in we have gone from 0 to 22% we are going to go to 40% and we obviously need the registrations to continue to rise so we continue to have children to vaccinate at our vaccine centers Do you have a follow-up Andrea? Yes, thank you for that A question from a colleague why is it that we don't have the same type of take-home rapid tests that other provinces are distributing and who determines what kind of tests Ottawa has sent? Those discussions are between public health so those are public health guidance there are about 24 different kinds of rapid tests that are licensed in Canada and none of the tests are unlabeled designed as at-home tests that are available now some of them have been transformed or been transformed to do that so our public health officials we have a committee of senior officials that gives advice on rapid testing and that guides our rapid testing policy is driven by science and driven by public health in BC and it will continue to be over the next little while and they provide advice and recommendations on what the most effective tests are because they validate tests and they see what the most effective tests are the most accurate tests are and then they act accordingly so it's on their counsel and their advice that our decisions as to which rapid tests we have are made we're getting, I expect in addition to those that we have on hand that we described yesterday and additional 200,000 in this calendar year so for all the talk of tens of millions that's what's coming in this calendar year and we're looking to see how those can be used and those that we have can be used to provide, to expand out our program that's what we intend to do but those have the decisions are made they're made on the advice and counsel of public health in BC and that approach to put the science first and to put the advice on medical matters from public health first has been I think one of our major advantages in the province Next question, Richard Dussman, Global News To that question, Andrew was asking Ontario, Alberta, Quebec, Nova Scotia Saskatchewan all handing out rapid tests do they order something different than us or are they going off-label that we refuse to do I think that's what people are confused about Dr. Henry said yesterday Alberta ordered these tests they were at the front of the list we were at the bottom why are we at the bottom and on another decision in Ontario today they're now going with three months between second and third doses for boosters to speed up the process for everyone 18 plus shortening the gap between second and third doses to speed up boosters I think Dr. Henry responded to that second question yesterday which is first of all we have a lot on the six month schedule we have a lot of people on the cusp of six to eight months schedule on the cusp of getting third doses that that is what's best advised that's what's recommended by the NACI and that's what we'll do but there are differences between BC and Ontario for example the 126,000 clinically vulnerable people who have received their booster doses in BC that program is pretty unique in Canada to BC that focus on them the more than 25,000 healthcare workers who have already received their booster doses and so on so we laid out in detail what we are going to do on booster doses before everyone else on October 26th you recall there was some criticism of that because we said that everybody had to get the booster dose in BC over a schedule that was informed by public health and that's what we're going to do and with respect to rapid testing British Columbia has used rapid testing it's been used based on the efforts of public health it's been available for use since they were validated in British Columbia in December of 2020 we've used 555,000 I think roughly it will be more today but we're currently using about 35,000 a week and we will be seeking and are seeking more rapid tests and will be in January based on what we were told in November and December it was our expectation that take home tests would be available and they're not yet ones that are designed and are on label use of take home tests those would be available they're not available yet and because of questions about when they're available it's not just an issue it's not really an issue of approval it's an issue of the quantities it is our intention to add to that by making and adjusting some of our current supply so that we'll have more broader access to rapid testing in BC so our process is informed by the science and was put in place on the advice of public health and we're going to be meeting this challenge of these new circumstances with greater use of rapid tests but there's going to be also inevitably a greater use of PCR testing and other things that we've put emphasis on more so than other jurisdictions like contact tracing unlike other jurisdictions and I was asked in a media interview about the requirement put in Ontario this week that all visitors in long-term care will be vaccinated as you know that's been in place for some time but it's been a vaccine mandate in long-term care and acute care so there are some differences between the provinces in terms of their strategies but we intend to federal government announce more rapid tests today and we intend to get our full share of those and hopefully a significant portion of those will be take home because that would be the easiest and most useful way to expand the program without utilizing public health resources that we need to make sure that we're in the right place with the COVID-19 but the public health emergency that's the overdose crisis and everything else in healthcare and that's what we're going to do. Richard, do you have a follow-up? I want to ask about two types of gatherings in coastal health first one at Rogers Arena that happens every few nights when the Canucks play at home does the province have any intention to put on capacity limits like Ontario has for events like hockey games and what can we learn around cases in coastal health especially linked to people having parties or other gatherings and what can the province do to address that situation? On the second point yes and what we're seeing I think is the transmission is not related to has not been related largely to large organized gatherings such as hockey games but also cultural events and others which are organized under the auspices of the BC vaccine card and the issue there is one of risk into the future if we see an increase in transmission so all of those questions are regularly under review but clearly under review right now the issue in Vancouver coastal health and we've seen in Vancouver Island health as well and we've seen an increase in unorganized events where people come together for parties and social events which happened frequently this time of year and two things I'd say one I would expect I think people should heed what Dr Henry said yesterday which is this is the time for caution we have a new variant of concern in the world which is transmitting in another province Ontario not a small one but it's soon to become the dominant variant of concern and people need to be extremely cautious and my advice to you as individuals is if you're going to an event you don't know everyone at the event and there isn't a vaccine mandate at the event don't go. Next question we go to Rob Sharpe check new. Sorry Mr can I just can you put a sharper point on that last question from Richard are you considering restrictions on capacity limits and what I said very clearly Rob I think at the beginning but I'm going to say it again I'll try and put a point on it I'll try and put a point on it Dr Henry and regional medical officers of health are meeting actively on all these points and obviously those issues the issue of capacity limits the issue of the vaccine card the issue of for example of whether the vaccine card does apply to over 50 as well as over 50 in terms of capacity smaller events as well those issues are all under active consideration by public health and we'll have more to say about that soon. So I think the pointy answer to you is yes. Rob do you have a follow up? Okay that was good and pointy thank you. Just on the interval on the booster doses when Ontario announced today that they were opening them up to everyone who's 18 years and older is there a reason why BC can't just throw open the booster doses to anyone who wants one at this point and has reached that kind of almost six month mark? Do we not have enough capacity or is the system not would it not allow it or why can't we just follow that kind of route? Because in general what we try and do in BC and I say this without judgment of what anyone else does because everyone's dealing with their own circumstances but in general in BC we follow the science so we laid out a detailed plan on October 26th about how we're going to deal with booster and third doses and we did it before everybody else. The science suggesting this was subsequently supported by the NACI we said six to eight months after second dose and the NACI recommendation came in and it supported that view and that is because of vaccine effectiveness when the appropriate moment is to get the booster dose for your own health and that's on it's on that the decision has been made and we've been doing very well and we have made some other decisions that are different than other provinces in particular the 126,000 clinically extremely vulnerable people who are eligible and have been received the third dose of the vaccine I think that was the right decision so our approach is guided as it always has been on where the risk is so long-term care and assisted living we've done all long-term care and assisted living and independent living homes and you've seen the results that and vaccine mandates clinically extremely vulnerable people it was our view and the view of those people whose lives are devoted to studying and operationalizing this work is that we can prioritize a number of people who are clinically extremely vulnerable it's a subset of the whole group so it doesn't include people like me with type 1 diabetes but it includes about 150,000 people 126,000 of those have been vaccinated and we're going to continue to do that which is in small and remote indigenous communities some of which received the first and second doses earlier we're doing that as well basically about six months ago we've done about 600 and 650,000 second doses and that's how many third doses we've done so we're on schedule and we've just cranked up the pharmacy system with much thanks to the B.C. Pharmacy Association to continue to meet the tests there so we are doing the work and when we made the announcement Rob October 26 we expected to do we laid out how many vaccines we do between now and the end of the year we're going to do 35% more than that and we continue to have to do better Next question, Susan Lazaruck thank you for that Oh hi, thanks for taking my question I'm just going to go back to the booster rollout when the decision to rollout the booster was made on October 26 all the con wasn't the concern that it is today so it's surging it's coinciding with everyone gathering for holidays what's preventing B.C. from rolling out the boosters at a faster rate like they're doing in Ontario and Alberta we are we haven't made too many announcements about it but we are in fact we're doing it at 35% faster rate not theoretically but actually right now we laid out our plans and remember you provide booster doses to provide effective protection against COVID-19 and that is the intention of the program that is what we're doing with the program so the science says not just our science but what we ourselves say that's a six-month interval at least six-month interval for older people and then it's the recommendation of the NACI I think was closer to eight months for younger people to maximize the effectiveness of the vaccine and so that's the approach that Dr. Henry laid out in detail yesterday that we're following so we are expanding capacity we did an announcement about the drug on yesterday we talked to the BC Pharmacy Association we laid it out where we're dramatically expanding pharmacies it's all in our immunization BC network and by January it will be more than 1,000 pharmacies where you're able to book your COVID-19 vaccination right now it's 500 and that is a significant expansion in addition to all the work we're doing so the short answer is we are I think we're making the test more than we expected to do and we're going to continue to do that we have an outstanding person leading our effort Dr. Penny Ballum and spoke to her today and just tell you that everybody in health care and it's no easy thing for community pharmacy as well which has also rolled out 1.3 million dose flu vaccine campaign in the same period it's a huge effort for everybody but I think people are delivering at a very high level isn't he have a follow-up yes so is it supply or infrastructure or staff that's impeding the rollout well first of all we're doing 35% better than we announced we do October 26 to the end of the year that's what we're doing so the rollout is advancing and it is being speeded up and we're expanding the capacity of the system and the community pharmacy so that is what's happening this is not an issue of supply but remember the supply of people to get their booster dose and so the number of people who had first and second doses early in the pandemic and we are giving priority to those who are most vulnerable why because we saw breakthrough cases in long-term care in hospitals and in hospitals and in long-term care and we gave priority to our elders and as a result this isn't people who might be vaccinated this isn't an announcement of people getting vaccinated 60% of people all those over 70 have received their third dose immunization that number is obviously growing every day and will continue to grow so the campaigns are really effective really strong I'm really proud of our teams for delivering on it I'm really proud of our community pharmacists who are going to add significantly to that so this is an issue of delivering for those who are eligible and that's what we're doing and delivering it in a way that maximizes their protection against COVID-19 you're right we didn't know about Omicron when we announced on October 26 but Omicron makes what we announced and our decision to go forward on October 26 and the way we went forward which is addressing the most vulnerable first it certainly supports that Next question Thank you for this Minister I just want to I don't seem to have heard this the numbers we thought yesterday were apparently from Sunday do we have updated numbers how many cases there are and how many are in the interior and where in the interior I don't think we'd be that precise necessarily but we'll have more numbers tomorrow but I think suffice to say Ontario I think suggested that we go through a different a slightly different and less comprehensive method of testing to estimate I think they suggested that they had in the neighbourhood of 30% of the 1900 cases they had in Ontario or the 1850 cases they had in Ontario about 30% of them or roughly 600 to 700 cases were Omicron these were cumulative cases so I think we announced 44 yesterday that was cumulative and we'll have numbers by health authorities for you tomorrow Do you have a follow up No that's fine Thank you Next question Hi thank you for taking my question I'm following up on the numbers of Omicron in the province right now can you give us a better picture of what the actual leg in reporting is given that the most recent number was 44 confirmed as of December 12th is that cases from samples up until December 12th that have been confirmed in the days since or is that cases that have been sequenced and confirmed up until December 12th I'm just trying to get a sense of how long the genomic sequencing process takes from the moment of a positive test and where we might be in that trajectory I don't think it's a lag here's what's happened everybody who tests positive for COVID-19 every test of the case test positive goes through the whole genomic sequencing process now every case so in every one of those cases they've tested positive for COVID-19 the only remaining question is whether it's the delta variant of concern which is still the overwhelming number in the province that is the 1% of variants identified you saw in the modeling yesterday the only question is everyone has to do what they have to do and you get diagnosed with COVID-19 in terms of isolation so everyone knows that and then all of them go through everyone in BC and no province none in Canada has the capacity that we have for whole genome sequencing they go through that process and where there are potential clusters that go through that urgent process but essentially they go through right away and then there's a turnaround and we identify that at the individual level which is the important thing what we're going to start to do because there's a demand for this clearly Moira in the media and I think from the public as well is to provide that in our daily updates of cases so yesterday it was provided and you're going to see that provided in future in our daily updates so you don't have to ask the question so it's not an issue of there being a lot of questions at all it's just the overall reporting across health authorities centrally and then providing that information to the public and I've heard you that you want that every day and we're going to provide that every day Moira do you have a follow-up? Thank you Minister I appreciate that however my question you didn't answer my question about from the moment of the positive test how long does the genome sequencing take to then show up in the daily and also you said there may be updated health orders coming soon what's on the table or where can British Columbians expect to see measures targeted in the coming days? With respect I think I answered the question that when people test positive they're in the COVID numbers and we've been providing numbers on variants of concern on a weekly basis and with respect to Omicron because of the interest we're going to start providing them on a daily basis and eventually every positive test is now goes through whole genomic sequencing the turnaround is fairly rapid and what we'll maybe try and do is with some of the experts who do that maybe give you some insight into that process or perhaps with a pool camera or other means to show people what happens what that process is I think it's really important to demystify this and also to recognize the exceptional work of the BCCDC in providing this to British Columbians it's truly a remarkable thing turnarounds quick but remember for the individual involved that's not the important question the individual involved it's the test positive for COVID-19 and that's reported as it is regularly so we report yesterday's numbers today and tomorrow's numbers and today's numbers tomorrow. We have time for one more question we'll go to Liam Britton and if we can get answers to these questions in English and French. First of all, Ontario is tracking the R value for Omicron infections currently sitting around four yesterday's presser didn't make mention of the R value are we currently tracking that for Omicron specifically in BC and why or why not? The reason is that the R value that you saw today and you saw that is I think that the RT and BC was 1.02 across the province it was under one in Fraser Health and Northern Health I think over one in the other three health authorities and you see a little bit of that trajectory reflected in the case counts in Vancouver coastal health. For the R number to become statistically significant you can provide it with the R number and that's why we provide the R number for COVID-19. I want to say this the delta variant for people who are unvaccinated has proven to be vicious and so the Omicron variant of concern is of concern you're not going to get any kind of reasonable there's nothing to analyze yet in terms of the Omicron variant concern in terms of an R that it wouldn't be useful information but the information that was provided is very useful it tells us where the R number was yesterday but we're obviously seeing especially on Vancouver Island and especially in Vancouver coastal health an upward trajectory and test positivity across all variants of concern and that's reflected in the R number and certainly was reflected in the case counts today. The R T in the total of protection of COVID-19 it's a number yesterday it was the order of 1.02 all over the province a little higher on the Vancouver Coastal Health Vancouver Coastal Health and inside of the region less higher in the north fortunately and in the Fraser Health region and so we see this so there's enough information enough to produce a number of R T which is legitimate and so it's the one that we gave we can't really use this technique for this number with only 44 it's the same thing in Ontario what they're I think trying to evoke with that in Ontario is how fast it's growing in Ontario and 30% of the cases when it was zero two weeks ago is a very fast growing circumstance there and as I understand it from their briefings today it's soon to become the dominant variant of concern so you don't need an R number to know it's growing rapidly and it is here in BC as well not as fast but fast enough and Liam do you have a follow-up? Yes I do and again in English and French please for people who aren't traveling abroad for the holidays can they expect their holiday plans in BC to remain intact until the new year? Can we say for sure that private gatherings will not be impacted by any coming health recommendations? Will there be restrictions on traveling between health authorities or from visitors from different households? The decision to bring in health measures is taken of course very seriously by the provincial health officer and by regional medical officers of health across our province who are all outstanding leaders and they understand the consequences of it and we all do let's face it last Christmas and last holiday season and last New Year's Eve was profoundly affected by COVID-19 and the last thing anyone wants to hear is that this Christmas is going to happen and this New Year's Eve and all of the events around it and New Year's Day and all of the events around it and all the different significant holidays are going to be affected by it and no one wants to hear that but I think we just have to be frank about it and Dr Henry was yesterday that people have to exercise caution and so the federal government has been clear and given this it's strong counsel not to travel internationally I'm telling you that the Omicron variant of concern is soon to become and we say changing health orders and other jurisdictions the major variant of concern the dominant variant of concern in the province of Ontario that numbers are growing here in BC and so people need to be cautious and prudent when they travel and be respectful of the places they travel to and whether we're traveling internationally or within BC and we say that knowing how challenging this is for people that this is the time of year and especially after this year that we've had and in health care that includes hundreds of long-term care residents who are still living away from their homes who all of whom have significant health issues living away from their homes because of the recent floods and landslides and so this has been a tough year and so I understand and we want to be with the ones we love at Christmas and I understand but we have to be prudent and that means I would suggest to people that instead of going to parties where they don't know people that they keep it close they keep it with the ones that are vaccinated and if they're not vaccinated I can tell you don't travel at all my French is the same it's very difficult because everyone in our province has suffered a lot last year and no one wanted that there was a situation like this this year but in the world there is this truth of COVID-19 of the Omicron that starts to have its influence in our country and around the world so we have to be prudent so my advice for everyone is to stay aware of this and not participate in events that are not organized or that don't know people or that don't know people that are not vaccinated or that don't know people that are not vaccinated or not to stay prudent and that's my advice there will be changes and I think in public health rules in the coming weeks because we have to spread to protect people and to celebrate a way where people are protected as much as possible and that's what we're going to do and we will have more to say about that in the coming days. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes today's availability.