By Sophie Gray, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter (Osoyoos Times)
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said in Saturday’s provincial update that we won’t see the impact of this week’s reopening until early next week.
Numbers have varied over the past week, with an additional 10 new test-positive cases on Saturday, bringing the total COVID-19 case count to 2,517.
“This is our transition period, and we need to watch carefully and do it carefully,” said Dr. Henry.
Each health region in B.C. has been impacted by COVID-19, with Interior Health recording 194 cases, Island Health recording 127, 62 in Northern Health, 894 in Vancouver Coastal Health and 1253 in the Fraser Health region as of May 25th.
There is one new community outbreak at a food processing plant and an additional outbreak at a second federal correctional facility. Both are being monitored by health officials and are in the Fraser Health region.
But Dr. Henry had some hopeful news to questions about travel within the province this summer. She said that she expects to soon encourage people to explore B.C. outside of their local communities.
“If things continue to go well and we take it carefully and we’re mindful of the potential for outbreaks and we get to the point in the summer, then yes, I will be encouraging people to vacation at home in B.C.”
