British Columbia's top doctor has extended a COVID-19 order that will keep gyms and fitness centres closed before providing more details tomorrow. That's when restrictions were set to expire, but Dr. Bonnie Henry said last week that they believed COVID-19 hospitalizations were expected to spike after cases within the community had peaked. Restrictions on gatherings and events will stay in place, and Henry has now also directed school boards to collect information on the vaccination status of their staff. The BC Teachers' Federation says on Twitter that it was not consulted or notified ahead o

A man with a meat cleaver was arrested by Vancouver Police on Sunday after threatening to kill people at the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre.A witness called 9-1-1 just after 1 p.m. yesterday after the 31-year-old suspect followed a woman into the Columbia Street community centre and began uttering threats while holding a large knife.VPD officers were close by and responded to the 9-1-1 call. The officers arrested the suspect nearby, after he tossed the knife and walked away.Vancouver Police applaud a number of quick-thinking witnesses who grabbed the knife off the ground, called 9-1-1, the

Kelowna RCMP are investigating after the body of a woman was found in the Glenmore area on Sunday morning.On January 16, 2022 just before 8:45 a.m., Kelowna RCMP was called to a park in the 2100 block of Glenmore Road. When officers arrived, they located the body of a deceased woman whose death is believed to be suspicious.Investigators have cordoned off the area and will be on scene for an undetermined period of time while they collect evidence and speak to witnesses. As the investigation is in its early stages, further information may be released once it becomes available.Kelowna RCMP is urg

A search is underway for the suspects who broke into an art gallery in Kelowna over the weekend, escaping with 11 pieces of art in less than four minutes. Gallery 421 owners Kelly Hanna and Ken Moen say the 2 am break-in on Saturday was targeted. They say surveillance video shows two masked men heading straight to several large sculptures in bronze or stone, while also scooping up some blown glass works. Kelowna RCMP are appealing for information as they investigate the robbery.

Police in Abbotsford say an Alberta man has been arrested in connection with the theft of a semi-truck in the Fraser Valley community. Constable Paul Walker says members of the Chilliwack RCMP attempted to stop the driver before he collided with another vehicle. Walker says police did not pursue the truck due to the man's driving behaviour and heavy fog but he later struck a concrete barrier and escaped before trying to steal a vehicle from a business complex, where members of the public intervened. He says 28 year old Rory Serna has been charged with multiple offences including dangerous ope

A BC Ferries spokesman says passengers should check for possible service disruptions before they arrive at a terminal because sailings have recently been cancelled due to staffing issues. Dan McIntosh says COVID-19 infections among employees, as well as seasonal cold and flu and winter storms could nix travel plans if vessels don't have enough employees to operate them as usual. He says staff have been cross-trained to do other duties and can be deployed on other routes, but that may not be enough if certain members of the crew, like the captain, or engineers, can't be on the job. Four sailin

A group representing truckers says drivers will stop delivering goods if the province doesn't ensure B-C's highways are cleared of snow and potholes are fixed. Ajay Toor, who speaks for the West Coast Trucking Association, says several drivers have been involved in serious crashes in recent weeks due to black ice and gaping holes that are dangerous. Toor says drivers who report problems to the DriveBC website are informed they should be emailing contractors, but it's impossible to figure out which of the 28 contractors are responsible for specific routes. The Transportation Ministry did not im

B.C. is reporting 2,275 new cases of COVID-19, including five epi-linked cases, for a total of 293,521 cases in the province.There are 35,943 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and 251,846 people who tested positive have recovered. Of the active cases, 646 COVID-positive individuals are in hospital and 95 are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.The new/active cases include:813 new cases in Fraser HealthTotal active cases: 17,256523 new cases in Vancouver Coastal HealthTotal active cases: 9,397412 new cases in Interior HealthTotal active cases

Two more schools have declared functional closures in BC as illnesses and isolations due to the Omicron variant of COVID-19 leave a handful of elementary and secondary schools without enough staff to operate safely. Heritage Park Middle School in Mission is closed from today until next Thursday while Armstrong Elementary in Armstrong expects to reopen on Tuesday, as those two schools join Hazelton Secondary in northwestern BC and an independent Christian school in Surrey that declared functional closures earlier this week. BC School Trustees Association president Stephanie Higginson says, all