 Good afternoon, my name is Adrian Dix, I'm BC's Minister of Health. To my right is Dr Bonnie Henry, BC's provincial health officer. Further to my right is the Minister of Education, Jennifer Whiteside, and this is our Code 19 update for Wednesday, December the 29th. We are honored to be here on the territories of the Musqueam, the Squamish, of the Slewa Dooth First Nations. Honored to be here today on their lands. Just in terms of an update, what you can both expect today, in terms of schedule the rest of the week, Dr Henry and I will be providing an update on the COVID-19 pandemic in BC on New Year's Eve, on Friday December the 31st at 10 a.m. from here in Vancouver, so you can plan on that for that day. And today you'll be hearing from Dr Henry with the previous style, I guess, of presentation of case counts and other things, as well as information about the COVID-19 pandemic in BC. Then you'll be hearing from Minister Jennifer Whiteside on some of the impacts of the Omnicron variant of concern on education, followed by an update from me on vaccinations and other issues, and with that, it's my honor to introduce Dr Bonnie Henry. Thank you very much and good afternoon. While we were able to provide preliminary numbers over the last few days, I wanted to update that with some of the confirmed numbers from today and to let you know that the updated confirmed numbers will be posted in our statement later today, but also on the BC CDC dashboard. So in the last 24 hours, we have confirmed 2,944 new cases of COVID-19 here in British Columbia. And health authority active cases are as follows. There are 5,462 in the Vancouver coastal health region, 7,192 in Fraser Health, 1,363 in Vancouver Island Health Authority, 1,576 in the Interior Health Authority and 431 active cases in the Northern Health Authority. For a total of 16,014 active cases who have been tested across the province. One of the other things, of course, that we have been watching carefully is our health authority and we have been watching carefully is our hospitalization rates for people with COVID and that is at 193 people hospitalized with COVID-19 today. 66 of whom are in critical care or ICU. And since December 24th, we have had an additional five people who have died in British Columbia from COVID-19 bringing the total number of deaths from COVID-19 to 2,419. And as always, our condolences and our thoughts go out to all of those who have lost loved ones during this pandemic. So a complete reporting of the confirmed data will be in the statement, as I said later today. As we talked about prior to the holiday long weekend here, Omicron has left us with more questions and answers. But it also is different and it is spreading through our communities in a way that is different from other variants that we have seen over the past two years. People are getting infected with a much smaller dose of the virus and much more quickly. And they are passing it on to others often before they realize that they are able to transmit it. The rate of transmission has impacted a number of different parts of our system that we have had in place, including the effectiveness of contact tracing. The incubation period is fast and we have now seen that piece of the puzzle come together both here in BC from the data we have but also what we are seeing across the country and in other countries globally. The incubation period is down to a median of about three days. From an average of about six days with previous variants even as late as a month ago. Which means by the time you develop symptoms and get tested, get that result back you will likely have exposed others and passed it on to some of them. And as we have seen before it spreads to the people that we are closest with. The people we live with, the people we socialize with, our family, our friends, our social connections. As a result we all need to be paying more attention. We talked about this before going into the weekend close attention to two things. How we are feeling and who we will be spending time with to make sure that we are not putting people at risk. The puzzle is coming together around Omicron. We are learning more about how fast it spreads, how infectious it is and it is very clear that it is increasingly transmissible with the shorter incubation period that now is more and more defined. We know as well that you are 10 times more likely to be reinfected than you have been infected before and are not yet vaccinated. And we know that Omicron is causing more breakthrough infections in people who have been vaccinated. But some of the things that we are learning is that particularly people who have two doses of vaccine on board who have been fully vaccinated regardless of how long ago that was are much more likely to have milder illness or asymptomatic illness if they do get infected. But given this rate of transmission if you have any symptoms of COVID-19 you really must assume that you have the virus and take measures to avoid passing it on to others. That means making sure that you are wearing masks in appropriate places. That you stay away from people who may have increased risk and that if you are not fully vaccinated as well, you are more likely to have more severe illness. The best thing we can do is make sure that we are staying away from others if we are sick ourselves to rest, drink plenty of fluids and get medical help if our symptoms worsen. If you are having difficulty breathing, having chest pain, having difficulty drinking or eating or your self-care is not helping you manage then contact 811 or if you need to make sure that you can seek immediate care and call 911 if you need to. There is additional details about self-management on the BCCDC website that can help you understand the things that can help. If you are a close contact of somebody with COVID-19 you do not need to self-isolate if you are fully vaccinated but you do need to monitor for symptoms for 14 days and you need to pay attention and be incubating it yourself and you need to be extra cautious about wearing masks when you are around to others and delaying gatherings and visits particularly to people who are vulnerable. As many people have experienced our testing centres are now at their maximum capacity and we have been doing a lot of testing over the past few days despite things like the weather and dealing with the issues that we have had with some of our testing centres. Our BCCDC symptom checker is a good tool to use if you are unsure about whether you need to get a test. The PCR tests, the more accurate PCR tests are being used and we are triaging those to make sure they are available for those who are highest risk so people who have a high risk of having more severe illness or for people who need to know whether they have COVID to be able to safely return to work and making sure they are available to support our healthcare workers and emergency responders and others. Rapid testing that we have available in the province is now being used across the province to supplement at our testing centres for those who are at lower risk of having severe disease but people with symptoms where it can help understand if they have COVID or not. If you are a healthcare worker please do go and get tested and connect with your employment right away. The encouraging trend that we are seeing around the world is that for most people who are fully vaccinated illness continues to be mild and for many people that means if you have mild illness you can self manage at home and you don't need a test. Booster doses are also providing added protection to those who are at highest risk which is why we are continuing to look at the approach of six months based on interval from your dose two and age being the number one risk factor. I will say as well that we are continuing our surveillance reporting the numbers I reported today which are based primarily on our PCR testing and that is something that has been consistent. We know that every day the case numbers have a lot to do with how many people are tested where and the capacity at our laboratory but surveillance is looking at trends over time and that is the other important things that we look at. The seven day rolling average helps us understand trends over time. As well we have other surveillance streams that augment and support our testing. We look at things like the rate of testing in different communities and different parts of the province and by age. We look at the percent positive in our testing in the different places. We now have an online reporting tool for rapid testing and that will give us a sense of how many people are reporting that the rapid test was positive. That is just another piece that helps us put together the picture of how this virus is moving through our community in this wave. As a result of the widespread transmission of Omicron we are seeing higher levels of absenteeism as people become safe with people needing to stay away from work. We know that schools reflect what is happening in our communities and this is affecting our health care system as well as other aspects of our society. With this in mind I have directed the Ministry of Education through an order to take a phased restart for our K-12 schools over the coming weeks. All schools will open on either January 33 or 4 as planned for children of essential workers and those with special needs with full return to classes for all students on January 10. This will give us time to add additional protocols to reduce crowding and stagger times for recesses. Those things that we did early on that we know can help reduce the potential for transmission within the settings. As well school administrators will use this phased approach to make sure we can continue to safely have classes to address absenteeism and program continuity. We will also be working very closely with public health in our schools to adjust our testing strategy and to modify our public health notification and working with the schools to make sure that we can put in place measures that help us understand how Omicron is affecting the schools as well. So these revised protocols for notification of staff and student illness and absenteeism given the spread in the community and the changes to contact tracing and Minister Whitehead who is here will address these details in a few minutes. White side, I'm sorry. So we are learning more. Every day more of these pieces about Omicron come together. What we don't yet know for sure is how severe this illness will be as more and more people are infected and how that will impact our healthcare system. We do know and what we are seeing across the globe and here in BC is that vaccines make a huge difference. Vaccines work. They may not stop all transmission but our vaccine effectiveness at preventing severe illness is still very high and we see that with data and CDC we have seen that in places across the country. Where even older people who are testing positive are not ending up in hospital and that is the good news right now. But we are not yet at that place where we can say that for sure and we need to continue to monitor and that's why we are taking some of these measures today. What we have done collectively has bought us time. We have ramped up our vaccination and booster program to modify our testing so we know we have the strategies in place that are needed. What we need to know right now is this week we are seeing that hospitalizations and critical care are holding steady but we still are having impacts and uncertainty is still a challenge for us but we will know more in a week. We are once again in a new phase of our pandemic and we continue to evolve and adapt our approach. That's why we are continuing to act to protect our health care system our schools, our communities and all of us. Despite all of our best efforts we are not going to prevent this wave but we do all need to continue to do our part to make sure that we are mitigating it as best we can. This means using all of our layers of protection are even more important now. We are paying attention to how we are feeling and who we are spending time with and we know that people will become ill with this new infectious strain despite all we are doing and we need to support them. This is just what happens when you have a highly infectious respiratory virus. We need to offer compassion without judgment and I know it's discouraging sometimes to think that despite everything we are doing and we are exposed to it we are seeing it move very quickly through our communities but we do have control. We have control about the things that we can do for ourselves to protect ourselves and our family and to support our family. Things that we can do including upping our mask game making sure we have a good quality three layer mask or using surgical masks or KN95s in those certain situations where we can't avoid indoor crowded areas, getting vaccinated. We know that is what is protecting us the most right now whether it's your first dose, your second dose or when you are invited for your booster dose. Give people the space they need. That is an important part of all of the different layers that we have. Keeping those barriers that we have in place. Being respectful when you go into a grocery store or the drug store, wearing your mask and keeping people space, those are things that we do to support each other right now. Avoiding crowds and particularly if you are concerned at all of anybody in your social circle has COVID if you are feeling unwell yourself please do not go to visit your loved ones in long-term care. Do not go to visit people who may be at greater risk from this strain of the virus as well. As we look to the end of 2021 and the start of a new year we need to give each other a booster shot of kindness once again and make sure that we get through this together by being kind, being calm and being safe. Thank you and I will now turn it over to Minister Whiteside. Thank you Dr. Henry, Minister Dix. My name is Jennifer Whiteside and I am BC's Minister of Education and it's an honour to be here today on the traditional territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and the First Nations. I want to start by first highlighting the incredibly hard work that all of our teachers, our school staff, administrators, school leadership, district leadership, trustees, rights holders, parents and of course all of our partners in the K-12 system all of the work that's gone into keeping our schools open and safe over the last two years and providing crucial face-to-face instruction to students across BC. It is a testament to the monumental efforts of everyone in the system that BC has been able to continue delivering in-class learning while so many other jurisdictions did not. We know that face-to-face learning is important for the intellectual, social and emotional development of students and that schools are more than just a place of learning. They also provide important supports for students who may need a bit of extra help, whether that is in the form of mental health services or hot meals or other programs. So our primary goal is to continue the work to keep students learning safely in person for the remainder of this school year. The rapid emergence of the Omicron variant means that we have to ensure we have the foundations in place to ensure that our schools safely open. And that is why, as Dr Henry has announced, we will have a phased approach for the return to school with students returning to school on Monday, January 10, staff returning to school next week on January 3rd and 4th. And this delayed start will allow public health and education time to assess the impact of the Omicron variant in our communities and on our education system. And it will also provide teachers, staff and administrators time to prepare for students safely returning to class with enhanced safety measures. This additional time will also allow schools to proactively implement continuity of learning plans to meet the unique challenges that we face. During this time, schools will be open for students whose parents are health care workers and for those students with support needs who require care. Parents are encouraged to reach out to their school principal to make those arrangements. Over the past two weeks, Ministry of Education staff have worked very closely with the BC Centre for Disease Control and with all of our education partners to develop enhanced safety measures that are based on public health current knowledge of the new variant. And these changes will be published in an addendum to the initial COVID-19 communicable diseases guideline for K-12 schools and are in addition to the existing guidelines in our schools which have continued to reduce the spread of the virus. Many of these measures will look very familiar as they were part of our original safety plans. As students head back to school, schools must reinforce the existing measures including maximizing space and ensuring all who are able to wear a mask. Some of the enhanced measures that will be enacted include reinforcing the importance of the daily health checks and ensuring that you stay home if sick. Implementing strategies to prevent crowding during class transition times such as staggering start and stop times or recess times, break times. Holding school gatherings and events such as assemblies in a virtual format. Holding staff-only gatherings virtually. Limiting visitors to those who are supporting activities that directly benefit student learning and well-being such as teacher candidates, immunizers or meal program volunteers and pausing extracurricular sports tournaments. These guidelines build on existing protocols that have successfully minimized our schools. And these existing guidelines encouraging everyone who is eligible to get fully vaccinated. Cleaning hands regularly. Cleaning and disinfecting surfaces at least once a day. And these measures are based on what public health has advised and knows our successful strategies. As we have done throughout the pandemic, safety measures for schools will continue to be updated as needed in consultation and at the direction of public health. Schools will use the next week to implement enhanced safety plans. Staff school leadership will be and district leadership will be determining their workforce needs and developing continuity of learning plans. As we know the pandemic is changing but we have shown that the education system is nimble, smart and strong. And we are taking these proactive steps to reduce any further disruptions in our school year. Our efforts are truly focused on working to reduce disruption and reduce absenteeism in our schools. We know it has been a very long year for students. And while some may be excited for an extended winter break we know that many families depend on our schools being open. And it is critical for them to have our schools running as smoothly as possible for the duration of the school year. But taking a few extra days now for planning and preparation by doing so we are setting up our schools for the best possible start. The ever-changing nature of this pandemic is challenging for all of us. And we are going to keep working closely with public health and education partners to ensure in the days and weeks ahead that we have the right measures in place to keep students and staff safe in schools. Thank you very much and I will turn it back to Minister Dix. Thank you very much, Minister Whiteside. Dr. Henry I just wanted to update you on a few important initiatives that are going on with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic. I want to firstly thank our health care teams across BC for the truly exceptional work that they did this weekend under challenging conditions this Christmas weekend. Well, there is certainly health care incidents and the normal Christmas weekend was for many of them expected to be a time of greater rest. And of course it was not. Just to put that in context on this Christmas even Christmas day, that 24th to 25th period that Dr. Henry will be reported on at 3 o'clock. Our 3 o'clock statement or our statement that comes out after 3 o'clock I guess it is now 4 o'clock or 4.30. On that day 19,681 lab tests were completed for COVID-19 and BC 19,681. Over the weekend the Christmas weekend and the stat holidays were completed. 5,000 lab tests were completed which represents each of it exceptional work by our nurses and our teams at collection stations and by our extraordinary teams in the labs. At the BC CDC, the health authorities and around BC including at life labs and we want to thank all of them for doing such exceptional work this weekend. I want to just note because often we have talked at different times of the day with respect to the Omicron variant of concern, our 7-day rolling average of positivity is 14.49% and that is virtually the same but very little variation between all 5 health authorities. In short, our 7-day rolling average I should say overall for COVID-19 14.49%. Obviously, that is higher yesterday than it was 7 days ago so that is an average. It would have been 10% 7 days ago, 20% yesterday and that 14.49% is really the same in every health authority. So wherever you live in BC, it is important to follow public health guidance and public health orders. Secondly, with respect to our acute care capacity in the province and how many people are in acute care today. As you know, we have 9,229 base beds and BC 2353 surge beds for a total of 11,582 total beds. The number of people in acute care today is 8,669 or significantly less than it was 3 to 4 weeks ago but still a very significant number. And our challenge is to ensure that we have sufficient capacity to deal with COVID-19 patients and patients who are living and dealing with the Omicron variant of concern. In critical care there are 510 base beds and 218 surge beds for a total of 728. There were 420 people in critical care in BC as of this morning. So we are making adjustments and creating a capacity for an expected increase in acute care and critical care patients. As you will see, the numbers aren't quite showing that yet as you would expect. There is a lag effect here but there were 206 people in hospital COVID-19 yesterday so we are making preparations and preparing the way for that. And finally I want to take you through an update on our accelerated booster campaign. It is worth remembering the significant strides in immunization that we have made in combating this pandemic. This includes a major vaccine campaign with 9,337,772 COVID-19 vaccines administered. 4,111,560 British Columbians vaccinated with two doses. More than 125,000 children now vaccinated with their pediatric COVID vaccine. With respect to boosters as of today, 858,774 boosters have been administered in BC. That significantly more, 128,000 more than originally was to be forecast by the end of 2021 in the plan we laid out in October. That includes 3,870 for people age 70 and above. 591,983 for people age 65 and above. That is 56% of the total. 84,000 health care workers. 151,621 people who are clinically extremely vulnerable. And 34,168 people living in assisted living and long-term care. More than 50% of indigenous people in BC have received their booster dose. And the number of British Columbians with boosters will continue to grow as we expand and accelerate the booster program. In the last 10 days, 210,000 people have received invitations for their booster shots. In addition, 135,000 people age 61 and 62 have become eligible and will receive their invitations in the next 24 hours. Another 30,000 people age 60 will hit six months this week and will go out also starting tomorrow. And we continue to go out daily with invites for those who become eligible based on their intervals. Anyone 70 plus, that's a five-month interval. Health care workers clinically extremely vulnerable in all categories including the third group and people who received AstraZeneca for doses one and two. Indigenous people 18 and above on a five-month interval. Our vaccination clinics are running at expanded capacity thanks in large part to the more than 500 community pharmacies that are involved in the program who this week did 48,000 immunizations with more to come every week for the next five weeks. Health authority clinics and pharmacies have more than 482,000 open appointments now through January 30th and more appointments are being added every day and every week. For the remainder of this week for example, we have 12,000 available appointments. If you're one of the 240,000 British Columbians who have gotten your booster invitation but you haven't booked your appointment yet do it now. Getting your booster protects you, protects those around you and helps our health care workers and this is especially important for those who are health care workers who received the invitation to book they need to get their booster doses today. There is always a thought I think in this time of year what the year ahead will hold and this year especially at this moment in the pandemic it is I believe reassuring to remember that so much of what lies ahead remains within our control. It doesn't feel that way with the Omicron variant of concern and yet it's the case. Getting vaccinated, getting our boosters, protecting our children age 5 to 11 with their vaccines, adhering to public health orders, following the latest public health guidance and using our COVID sense. All these give us control over a virus that spreads to live and to protect our community. We give it to spread. Renewing our commitment to taking these actions especially when we are tired and worn down by COVID. If we take each of these actions, if we do this and the promise of 2020 will be that which we would hope for such a year. It is our greatest chance for experiencing a 2022 I should say that works well for everybody is to do exactly that. To use the control we have to protect ourselves, to protect our families, to protect our province and to help people around our country and our world to protect all of us from the COVID-19 pandemic. With that we are happy to take your questions. As a reminder to media on the phone, please press star 1 to enter the queue. You will be limited to one question and one follow-up. Please also remember to take your phone off mute. You will not be audible until your name is called. Our first question today is from Ben Milder, CTV. Please go ahead. Thank you for air filters and CO2 monitors to keep track of air quality in classrooms. Is there any money available and are there plans in place to improve ventilation in schools? I will turn that over to Minister Whiteside. I will say though that from the very beginning ventilation has been one of the layers that we have been focusing on in schools across the province and there has been a lot of work done on that. Particularly in the summer of 2020 and again last summer in schools for outbreaks. Minister? Thank you for the question. With respect to ventilation we have made significant investments in HVAC systems across our education system. We have invested well in excess of $300,000 over the last $300 million over the last two school years which districts have used to upgrade their systems in some cases to purchase portable air filtration units where there is not mechanical HVAC available. We have been working with our education partners throughout this year to identify areas where we need to support districts to continue to do the work that they are doing to upgrade their systems and that work will carry on and we will be looking at what the needs are in that respect. Did you have a follow-up? Yes, I do. This one is for Dr. Henry. Dr. Henry, people at low risk with symptoms have been advised to isolate but told they don't necessarily need to get a test to confirm that they have COVID. So the number that came out today is 2,944. It likely isn't the true representation of the new cases in the province in the last 24 hours. You touted the different statistical results based on those tools. Do you have an estimate of the true number of new daily cases that we are averaging? Not just the confirmed positives from PCR tests? So the PCR testing and the rate of testing is one of the surveillance tools that we have used all along. It is a consistent and that is one of the hallmarks of a surveillance tool that tells you the trends over time using that methodology. We know that the daily numbers are not reflecting everybody who has COVID in our province. That has been the case from the very beginning and at different periods of time the actual true number can be varied by 4 or 5 times what we are seeing in terms of PCR testing. So I don't have an exact number for the last weekend but we do know a small amount of the people who had rapid tests, who went to the testing centers, who reported. Plus we know a little bit from early on in the pandemic where we had limited testing capacity and on average there is probably 3 to 4 times the number of people who truly have COVID than what is in our surveillance numbers on a daily basis. And that is something that we have seen throughout this pandemic. It varies by community as well by where we see transmission happening in communities. And that is very likely to be the same differential across the province because we are seeing with the exception of the north right now we are seeing these very high percent positivity in the PCR testing across the province. So that gives us a sense of how this virus, this new strain is spreading in many communities across the province. Our next question is from Mike Hager at Globe and Mail. Thanks a lot. Quebec just shortened its isolation period for WVAC's health care workers to seven days. BC's guidance was changed to seven days. It appears recently, can you explain why and when that was changed from 10 to seven days for all WVAC's people to self-isolate? And will BC follow the U.S. CDC's guidelines of this period to five days? So we actually changed that based on data that we saw around how people were getting infected and how long they were infectious if they were vaccinated several months ago. So in the summer we changed our public health guidance around what we were telling people who were cases depending on their vaccination status. So in the summer time ago we shared that information with our colleagues across the country and I know we've been talking about the data that shows that people who are vaccinated are less likely to get infected, have milder illness and shed less virus for a shorter period of time. And that's why we went with seven days a few months ago. We know that for people who are not vaccinated, they can shed more virus so therefore are likely to be more infectious to others. We are looking very carefully at the data from the U.S. and the data that we are now accumulating people infected with Omicron. And one of the things that we have looked at here with our data is that incubation period which shows that people are, and I talked a little bit about this last week, now that we see that a smaller amount of the virus can bind more strongly to the ACE2 receptors in our nasal pharyngeal area so the upper nose and throat and that you can start replicating and shedding virus before you have symptoms yourself. What we are seeing here which is very similar to what the U.S. CDC based their data on is that people tend to be infectious a day or two before they feel symptoms, but that the symptoms tend to be mild and drop off quickly. So we are looking at that very carefully so that we can shorten that period of infectivity. It's all about risk and mitigating the risk because we know that some people will shed for longer. People who have a compromised immune systems for example can shed some virus for even longer period of time. So being able to also get people back to work sooner if they have milder illness with other precautions in place. So making sure that we add masks for example, keeping distances, making sure you are not in a crowded environment and one of the things that we are very concerned about is healthcare workers becoming sick with Omicron in the next little while and seeing if there is ways that we can have healthcare workers for example with very mild or asymptomatic cases working in some aspects of healthcare with appropriate precautions in place. So yes, we are looking at those in detail and my team will be looking at that and we will be revising our advice as the data becomes available. Mike, did you have a follow-up? What are you seeing in terms of staffing in, you know, how first responders we have talked to firefighting departments that want this period to be down to five days and in the U.S. we will be looking at that and in the U.S. a third of the workforce is off in some departments with Omicron infections. So when and what will drive this decision if you do lower that limit to five days and how it is staffing across hospitals, fire department, police. We are starting to see the impact a little bit. It is very hard to tell but certainly in healthcare we are seeing a lot of absenteeism from Omicron, mostly with mild illness as you know all healthcare workers are vaccinated. So somewhat different situation than what they were seeing in the U.S. where their vaccination rates are lower so having more and more challenges with people getting quite sick. So that is something that we are looking at actively right now. So we will be making decision in the next little while based on our data. We expect that we are going to see increasing absenteeism given the rates of transmission we are seeing in the community. So it is a consideration. One of the other considerations that we made some changes some months ago around people who are vaccinated who have had close contact with somebody with Omicron do not need to quarantine or isolate for that potential incubation period. So we are going to work with using appropriate masking and self-monitoring to be sure that you are not passing it on in the workplace setting. So that is another part of it that helps preserve our health our workforces in those different essential settings. But this is certainly something I will have more to say on very soon. Our next question is from Richard Dasman, global. Please go ahead. Thank you, Richard. Is there any consideration being given to fast-track teachers and school staff for booster shots? Considering many of them will be sort of in the 30s, 40s could be waiting up to eight months between second and third dose. Is there any thought about prioritizing them? And what happens to the kids, the children of tens of thousands of school staff when teachers and staff are back next week? What support being done there? So we prioritized teachers and school staff, all school staff as you know for vaccination early on. So they do come up to their six months at a sooner period by age. So yes, we absolutely many people who are any school staff who are in their 60s will have and have at six months will get that invite if they haven't already. So we will be moving through very quickly as we ramp up over the next few weeks. So no, I do not expect any school staff or anybody who receive their vaccine as we prioritize them to be waiting eight months at all. They will be moved up to the six months soon. And in terms of you want to address the issue around supporting others? Thanks, Richard. And I do want to say that we understand that this will be disruptive for many families next week, which is why we wanted to ensure that we could get the information out about the delay of the return of students to school as soon as possible. We are going to continue to work with, certainly work with districts to ensure that for those essential situations where we have children with potential needs who need access to schools that we can organize for that next week. But I think we are in a situation where we need to act proactively now to ensure we can try to minimize the disruption and minimize absenteeism down the road. We want to have a successful return of students to school and we need the time to invest in the assessment and planning, particularly to assess the impact on the workforce that we can anticipate will have happened over the course of the holidays. Richard, did you have a follow-up? Dr. Henry, just announced that they are going to be allowing sick health care workers to work in the health care system. Alberta has decided that they are going to allow those who are terminated due to not being vaccinated to return to work. Is BC considering either of these options to help protect the health care system? And also to this absenteeism that you spoke to, what are businesses supposed to do, including schools, if there are people who are sick or showing symptoms and can't get a test? Are these businesses, are you just expecting them to close if they can't find staff to remain open? So, you know, thinking about business continuity is something that we all need to do through this. And there needs to be thinking through that. And that's one of the things that we're doing with schools, one of the things that we've been doing all along with health care. And yes, we are looking at fitness for work for people who have mild illness in the health care setting. And that is something that we have had preliminary plans for, but we're working with the occupational health and safety folk to identify those criteria, identify for health care workers, and making sure we also have plans to be able to substitute other workers and move workers around as needed. Obviously, if somebody is sick, whether it's with COVID or with any other illness, we don't want them in a workplace setting because it is a risk to others. But there are certain settings where we need to make sure that we have that balancing of continuity of care. Health care workers are one. Police services, fire services. So we need to look at what are the measures that need to be in place to ensure that particularly people who have very mild illness or are asymptomatic are able to safely do work in those workplaces if needed. So those are all things that are in flux. It is a reality that for some businesses if they have a lot of people off work who aren't able to work, they will need to find ways to either have additional staff or they may need to close. This has been a reality through this pandemic where if workers aren't vaccinated, for example, and you have workers transmitting to each other, that businesses have to close because they don't have enough people to carry on their business. But these are things we want to prevent and the best way to prevent them is by making sure that everybody is vaccinated and that we have those COVID safety plans that thinking that we had that worked for us through the last part of these last 20 months or 24 months. So going back to thinking about what are the things that we have in place before we had vaccination that helped us protect workers. So those barriers, the Plexiglas that was in before, keeping space, making sure of masking, making sure that workers aren't gathering together and having lunch together in a small break room, those are all the things we need to go back to thinking as this strain is spreading through our communities right now. Our next question is from Lisa Yuzda, City News. Please go ahead. Just following up on what Richard asked about the teachers and school staff going back to work next week who have children, are you saying they will have to find alternate means of taking care of their kids which I have understood in the past that they will have kids together in group home settings that could possibly lead to more transmission? Is that what you are saying parents are going to have to do or will parents who are teachers and staff be allowed to spend their kids to school as they would be children of essential workers? That is correct. So we are not closing schools. We are not going to online learning. What we are doing is having a phased approach to full back to school and doing that in a way that allows us to make sure we are following what is happening in our communities. So my understanding and yes, teachers will be able to, children of teachers, essential workers, healthcare workers will be in school next week. Lisa, did you have a follow-up? You mentioned Minister Whiteside about the notification process and what is going to happen that would be revamped. I am wondering if you could talk about what that is. There were some other measures the BCTS wanted to see, which was N95 for teachers and enhanced masking or following up of masking for students. I am wondering if you can talk about will there be additional masks of greater protection available for staff and students? I can talk a little bit about the notification because this is something we are working very closely on. As I said in the past, what we have done is notified every case and when there is thought to have been transmission within the settings or clusters and of course outbreaks. And with the rapid transmission that we are seeing, it is not possible to do each type of case notification as we did before. So we are working very closely with the schools about how they will notify parents about what is happening in the school community. Of course, reflecting what is happening in the broader community. But we cannot expect to have that same case, individual case reporting and case follow-up anymore. Just because of what is happening about the rapid transmission, it is too far behind to make a difference. So this is part of the message that all of us need to think about right now. As we are going through this next new phase that is being driven by, thankfully, for most of us, milder virus that is transmitted more rapidly. So we are working very closely with people to make sure that the virus that is transmitted more rapidly. We need to be able to notify those in our social contacts, in our close contacts and let them know if we have COVID or if we are sick. So that people can take those appropriate precautions to stay away from larger gatherings, to stay away from people who may be most at risk during that period. So these are all the things that we have to do now to adapt to this new changing situation. What we will be doing next week is working very closely with the schools about how that will look with public health, working with each individual schools across the province. But it cannot be the same as what we have been doing all along. And we will need to work together to make sure that we are appropriately notifying people about what the risk is. I think we can also be really reassured that, you know, with other illnesses that we have seen, what we have known all along, we know that our classroom settings in particular are safe. And they are not the places that are amplifying the transmission of this virus. And we don't expect that to be any different with Omicron. We still know that the people we get infected and the people we infect are our close contacts, our social connections, our family. Those we are closest to. And you want to address the other? Thanks, Lisa. Just with respect to, I don't have anything more really to add about the communication piece other than to say that I understand that parents in school communities will want to have an understanding of what is happening in schools. And that will very much be the work that is undertaken at both a provincial and local level between public health and education over the coming days. With respect to masking, we have appropriate mask wearing to support children around appropriate mask wearing and ensure that we have sufficient supplies available of the three-ply masks that we have been providing throughout the pandemic and that we will continue to provide. So that is also a work that will be undertaken next week. Our next question is from Lisa Cordasco, Vancouver sign. Please go ahead. Thank you. This is a different game that we're in now. But the rules about PPE by the Ministry of Health have not changed since March of 2020 when this pandemic began. So given the Omicron transmissibility in communities right now, will you change the Ministry of Health PPE policy to allow health care workers to decide themselves when to use an N95 mask without having to go through the point of care assessment and then getting approval from a supervisor? So I think you're talking about two different things here, Lisa. One is what is happening in the community about the transmissibility of the virus. But also the measures that we have in place, the infection prevention and control guidelines in our health care settings and all health care settings is robust. It continues to be robust and it continues to rely on a whole bunch of things. So engineering controls and we've talked a lot about ventilation in hospitals with some of you and your colleagues. We've talked a lot about the measures that are in place. There's administrative measures. So there are higher risk settings and lower risk settings that we know even in health care. We've talked about people who are ill for the most part. The level of PPE that you need as the last line of defense is different from working in a COVID ward or an ICU or the emergency department where the acuity and the types of things that people are coming in with are different. So the point of care risk assessment is a basis for every health care worker, for every encounter that we have with a patient and it helps us understand what is that last line of defense that we need knowing that everything else is in place as well. So that means masks on people coming in. So the bottom line is when we review that information, yes, you have to continue to do that. And N95 respirators are widely available and being used as our last America face respirators in ICUs, in COVID wards, in those higher risk settings now and will continue to be. And they will be continued. The guidance that we have allows for that and allows for that individualized assessment to happen on an ongoing basis. Lisa, did you have a follow-up? According to the BC nurses and despite the policy that's in place, it is applied in a very spotty manner. Some nurses have easy access to N95 respirators. Others do not. Yet they could be working under the very same conditions. The policy itself only refers to the spread being by droplets. The policy was written in 2020 when you had a shortage of N95. Why is there any resistance at all to allowing nurses to make their own decisions and having easy access to N95? So they actually that's not correct. The infection prevention and control guidelines have been updated. They do reflect the fact that we have an abundant supply now of respirators and that they are accessible to healthcare workers in the situations that they need them across the province. And that's something we're reinforcing with our healthcare settings across the province. Our next question is from Keith Baldry, CKNW. Go ahead. Hi, thank you. The positivity rate seems to be exploding across the country, particularly Ontario and Quebec. But here in BC we've gone from 9% rolling 7-day average on Friday to almost 15% today. Is there any reason to think that that's not going to continue to climb in the short term which means we'll be hitting 4, 5, 6,000 cases a day? Is there any way to determine whether Omicron is definitively behind this situation? It definitely is Omicron. We know by our whole genome sequencing that that has really taken off. I actually haven't seen the data for today yet. But we expect that the majority of these whether it's up to 70 or 80% now I'm not entirely sure. But it is in that realm. So this is being driven by Omicron across the board. And yes, our positivity rates are going up. They took off first in the areas where they were the lowest. Vancouver Coastal and Fraser Health and the one-day test positivity in coastal today was around 20%. So we do expect that. However, the things that we are doing are also helping to dampen that. What we're trying to do because we cannot stop the spread. What we can do is try and flatten it down and draw it out a little bit so that we are not seeing a rush on our hospitals. And this is something that I've been talking with my colleagues on this weekend across the country and elsewhere. There is an uptick quite a strong increase in hospitalizations in Quebec. And what is driving that is one of the things we're trying to understand. We've taken some measures here to try and protect our health care system including things like cancelling surgeries which is a very serious measure both to try and protect the capacity but also because we're concerned about health care worker absenteeism given how we're seeing the spread in the community. So there's a lot that we don't yet know. I'm hopeful that the things that we're all doing collectively like not having those large gatherings and trying to prevent ourselves from transmitting to others if we get sick. Those will keep us from having continually increasing rates. But it's in our hands now. I don't know if you want to add to that. Keith, did you have a follow-up? Yes, in terms of the booster doses Minister Dix mentioned almost a quarter million people who received invitations to book but have yet to do so. I know the uptake for third doses wasn't expected to me as high perhaps as second doses but does this strike either of you as unusually a high number of people who have been offered to book a third dose yet to take the opportunity to do that? And does it make the whole argument whether it's a six month or three month interval almost a moot argument if so many people just aren't taking that third dose? You know, we really our strategy has been since we made the decision around booster doses is to protect those most at risk first. And we do have good strong vaccine effectiveness and we have just saw some preliminary data that will be coming out very soon from BCCDC up to eight months where protection from hospitalization is still very strong in the 90% range. So that's good. The protection you saw some data from the science table Ontario against infection has gone down quite dramatically. We haven't seen that yet here. We just haven't collected enough of that but you know it's I can only just say it again if you're due for a booster dose get it now. There are a number of people that are asking for it. There's a number of people who like with all of this have been complacent or have other reasons why they haven't yet got their booster dose. So more and more people will be invited to book their boosters and larger clinics are coming online in the next couple of weeks so we can move that up for more and more people. I think the purpose of saying this Keith is simply to say that there are spots available. I think sometimes people may think they're not. So do and it is a little bit different in different health authorities for example our health authority clinics based in Vancouver Island are fully booked this week and other health authorities are not allowed to open up more rooms so it's not necessarily consistent around the province. But I think what it tells us is that the number of bookings is going up significantly. The number of people who are getting their six months has also increased significantly in the hundreds of thousands in the last week for example. So we're in this period where people will need to catch up to the situation. Understand that when you receive your notification to book the sooner you book the sooner you get your booster dose and you don't think I think it's much too early to sort of try and find trends in it. It's really to tell people that when they're invited to book they should book and I want to especially emphasize the importance for health care workers when they're invited to book to book that's a critical thing they need to do. We have time for one more question. Our last question today is from Bill Perry, CBC. Please go ahead. Hi there of course we need our answers so now we're in a situation that the danger of Alma Cron is so severe that start of the school term needs to be delayed for most students. Can you explain please why the province didn't make it mandatory for teachers and school staff to be vaccinated as government did virtually with every other public sector job in the province and Dr. Henry you talk about we'll know more about the variant and the phase in is to see what's happening in the community. So there's a chance this phase in is delayed to the start of the term could be extended? The answer to that is no. This is just giving us a bit more time to deal with the situation that we're in and to plan for things like absenteeism because we're starting to see that as we mentioned in health care and across the board. So it really is about continuity and making sure we have the best things in place. This is not a delay and start to what am I trying to say? This is not going to online learning because we know that that was not something that supported children across this province. It's much more important that we get them back into the classroom and we are committed to doing that. That is our number one priority and we're doing it in a way that we're dealing with right now and we're working together to do that with the education sector with all of the superintendents and the schools and the teachers and the parent groups so that we can do it in the best possible way and minimize disruption to children and to their lives. So that's the focus of this and we are committed to doing it and the extra few days is to make sure that we're doing it in a way that supports children across the province. As you know, I have always said that I think that every person who works in our school system should be immunized and that that's important, but it is up to the employer which are the school districts to bring in those policies. Having said that, we do know across the board we have very high rates of immunization in the school staff so that's important, that supports schools being able to operate safely and we know that we have increasing rates in children and now more recently in children 5 to 11. I think that's the focus of this session. For this regard, in what is happening in schools, the vast majority of the teachers, the people who work in a school system without vaccines, it's a decision of the school council of each region, but that is what is essential is to create the conditions that people should be aware of, and also to keep in mind that COVID-19 is not possible in schools. That is what we are doing and it is because of that that we have taken the next week to prepare this part of the school year 2021-22. How did you have the follow-up? Yes, please. And again in English and French. This is about the booster shots and a lot of people being frustrated that people in their age category and younger are being given boosters in other provinces. Some are heading to the United States. I know you referenced this earlier but can you explain again why BC can't roll out this program sooner for more people and at least 240,000 unbooked booster appointments. Could those unused appointments go to people who want those boosters right now? Yes, we have focused on making sure that those most at risk have the ability to get their booster soonest first. That has proven to be very successful for us in that we have very high rates of getting booster doses into people 70 and over. That was the focus. It was really making sure that those most at risk got at first 200,000 people that have been invited . Yes, the appointments have been tritrated for the invites. That means they are available and we have been able to move other people up and we are doing that more rapidly. But it also again reflects that balancing that we have to do in that we know that extended interval between those two and those three even longer than six months probably gives longer lasting or stronger protection as well. Finding that balance and I would just say that if you are coming up to your six months you will be getting your booster within the next few weeks. These are ramping up quickly and we particularly have pharmacies that are ramping up to be able to provide it for people conveniently in their communities. Just to say it is important to recognize that 151,627 clinically extremely vulnerable people in the most vulnerable categories, people who have challenges to their immune system have been put towards the front line. They were for first and second doses and they are for third doses for good reason. This will benefit them, their families, the community, the province and the health care system. It is an important thing to do. Often if someone is getting it before you it is for that reason. The first dose of AstraZeneca has been determined by our clinical experts that they should get it as soon as possible at six months or otherwise it is age, clinically vulnerable. We have given priority to Indigenous communities as we should given the vulnerability often in those communities especially isolated communities around the province should a variant of concern visit them and so more than 50% of eligible Indigenous people have been vaccinated. That is an excellent recognition of the work of the First Nations Health Authority and our health authorities across BC working together and I want to thank them for their exceptional extraordinary efforts as I am to the First Nations Leadership Council and First Nations and Indigenous leaders across BC. We are going to give priority to those who have the most needs of the vaccination that are the most vulnerable and we will continue to do it. We are going to advance this system with more vaccination in the weeks to come. I want to say to everyone who received an invitation to be vaccinated to pursue it. I think that is the important thing now and I think for everyone in the province it is important when we are invited to be vaccinated and to be vaccinated. That is the important thing and it will happen to everyone because everyone will have access to a third dose and it will be regulated in the first months of 2022. Thank you very much. We will see you on Friday.