British Columbia's top doctor says old-fashioned contact tracing, not an app, is the primary tool that's been helping public health officials find people who could be infected with COVID-19. Dr. Bonnie Henry says officials are accustomed to tracking people who could have come into contact with carriers of other diseases and COVID-19 is no different, except that 600 people have been focused on the task. Henry says an app would be more useful for when people may have spread or contracted the illness in a large crowd of people. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promoted a voluntary app called CO

School trustees in both Vancouver and Victoria have voted to examine the role of police liaison officers in their facilities. The separate, unanimous votes came during school board meetings last night when trustees also rejected calls for immediate suspension of the liaison program while the reviews are underway. Supporters of the liaison program, which sees officers with special training assigned to specific elementary or high schools, say it helps police develop relationships, especially with at-risk youth. But critics question who the program is actually protecting.

The Government of British Columbia is taking action to help stratas better mitigate the rising costs of insurance.Actions include bringing more transparency to the strata insurance industry, closing loopholes related to depreciation reports, ending referral fees paid to property managers and giving strata owners and corporations the tools they need to do their part."The rising cost of strata insurance is a major financial pressure facing thousands of British Columbians during an already challenging time," said Carole James, Minister of Finance. "This is an extremely complex issue playing out i

Final arguments in the extradition case for Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou will take place early next year. The BC Supreme Court approved a schedule proposed by the Crown and Meng's defence team. In a letter to Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes, Crown lawyer John Gibb-Carsley says the schedule aims to resolve all necessary evidentiary issues through the summer and early fall. Hearings are to resume on August 17th, when the court will meet for five days to hear arguments over privilege claims in the case.

British Columbia's top doctor is warning people not to let their guard down against COVID-19 as the province prepares to allow more travel this summer. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says the premier is expected to announce later this week when the province will move into the third phase of its restart plan, which allows overnight camping and the opening of hotels, resorts and RV parks. She says travellers have to exercise caution, be respectful of the communities they plan to visit and take the same care they do at home to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. Henry says trav

The City of Surrey and a group in Burnaby are both reporting successful initiatives to increase the amount of personal protective equipment available to frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. A statement from Surrey says 16 of its local manufacturers have re-tooled since the virus hit in March and have now reached four million dollars in sales of protective equipment, also known as PPE. Surrey says over the last several months, local companies have supplied a range of equipment, including 100,000 face shields and 300,000 litres of disinfectant and hand sanitizers to Canadian firms. B

A man has died after rescuing his daughter during a visit to a waterfall near Kelowna, B.C., on Father's Day. The RCMP say emergency crews rushed to the Mill Creek waterfall area after receiving a 911 call reporting a drowning. Cpl. Jocelyn Noseworthy says police learned the victim had been at the waterfall with his family and he went into the water to help his daughter after she slipped in. She says the daughter was able to get to shore. Noseworthy says bystanders tried to save the man with CPR. Paramedics took over when they arrived but despite their efforts, she says the 46-year-old man fr

Adrian Dix, Minister of Health, and Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.'s provincial health officer, have issued the following joint statement regarding updates on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) response in British Columbia: "Today, we are announcing seven new COVID-19 confirmed positive cases, for a total of 2,790 cases in British Columbia."There are 178 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and 2,444 people who tested positive have recovered."Of the total COVID-19 cases, 11 individuals are hospitalized, six of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in

Two schools have been evacuated in Kamloops, B.C, after the RCMP say ``suspicious messaging'' was found written on the exterior of David Thompson Elementary. The school along with Westsyde Elementary have been evacuated by police. The RCMP says several homes in the area of Pine Springs Road have also been evacuated. It's unclear what messaging has been written on the school, but Kamloops RCMP say more information is forthcoming.