Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry is warning that British Columbia is at a critical juncture in the fight against COVID-19. New variants originally identified in South Africa and the United Kingdom have made their way to BC, and with new cases plateauing at around 500 a day, Dr. Henry says she's "very concerned." She says the strategy for fighting the new variants is the same as for the predominant strain and urged British Columbians not to travel right now unless it's essential. At the same time, she says officials are temporarily widening the gap between two doses of the Pfizer vac

Police in Victoria say they took an armed youth into custody yesterday morning. The youth was taken into custody after they received multiple 9-1-1 calls to a residential building. Officers say they responded to reports of a young man stabbing the hallway floor and threatening to harm people. They say they negotiated the suspect into custody at gunpoint and a knife was recovered during the arrest. Police allege the youth threatened to harm officers and others.The youth was held in custody for court, although they did not specify any charges against him.

British Columbia's top doctor says the province is extending the interval between the two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Dr. Bonnie Henry says further delays in the production and delivery of the vaccine over the next two weeks prompted health officials to extend the time period between the shots from 35 to 42 days. She says about 60 per cent of the more than 119,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered in the province so far have been used to protect residents of long-term care homes. Dr. Henry provided an update on B.C.'s vaccine supply on Monday while reporting 26 more de

A third-party report examining how the British Columbia government responded to COVID-19 in long-term care homes during the first wave of the pandemic reveals confusion over policies and infection prevention. The report, by Ernst & Young, says specific policy orders from the provincial health officer were interpreted differently by health authorities and there were gaps in infection prevention and control as well as emergency preparedness. It also highlighted a lack of consistent provincial policy on how health authorities and facility operators handled residents who tested positive for C

The BC Liberal party and BC Care Providers Association want to know why the provincial government stalled the release of a report examining how BC's long-term care homes handled the first wave of the pandemic. The Ministry of Health says the report, completed last fall, will be released today. More than 40 groups, including the Care Providers Association, were consulted after Ernst & Young was commissioned by the ministry to conduct the study. More than half of BC's deaths from COVID-19 have been in long-term care facilities. A spokesperson for SafeCare BC, says seeing the report earlier

Dentists and bus drivers are among those disappointed they will not be prioritized for the COVID-19 vaccine in BC. The province had initially considered prioritizing essential workers, but on Friday said it planned to take an age-based approach instead because older people are more likely to die of COVID-19. The British Columbia Dental Association has written a letter to Premier John Horgan urging him to include dentists in stage two of the vaccination plan along with family doctors and specialists. Unifor Local 111, which represents Metro Vancouver bus drivers, is also demanding that its mem

The BC Centre for Disease Control has added eight flights that passed through Vancouver International Airport to its list of COVID-19 exposures. The flights, four of them domestic and the other four international, either took off from or landed at YVR between January 5th and January 19th. They include an Air Canada flight from Los Angeles to Vancouver on January 5th, a WestJet flight from Toronto to Vancouver on January 9th and an Aeromexico flight from Mexico City to Vancouver on January 17th. The full list can be seen on the B-C Centre for Disease Control website. Anyone who was on any of t

B.C. is reporting 508 new cases of COVID-19, pushing active infections to 4,479. Nine more people have died due to the illness, bringing the death toll in the province to 1,128. There have been 110,566 doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered in B.C., including 2,202 second doses. The province is reporting new outbreaks at two hospitals, one in Kamloops and the other in New Westminster, as well as at the North Fraser Pretrial Centre in Port Coquitlam. Health Minister Adrian Dix and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry say in a joint statement the risk from the virus in B.C. remains high a

The BC government has created three post-COVID recovery clinics for patients enduring long-term effects from the novel coronavirus. The clinics, at St. Paul's Hospital, Vancouver General Hospital and at the Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre in Surrey, will offer interdisciplinary care from a range of health experts. A statement from the province says the three clinics will also help specialists gain a better understanding of the long-term adverse effects of COVID-19. Doctors at St. Paul's say they have already seen more than 160 post-COVID patients reporting some long time sympt