COVID-19 infections continue to drop in Burnaby as B.C. prepares to make changes to its pandemic management in the next week.
According to the latest Geographic Distribution of COVID-19 by Local Health Area of Case Residence, Burnaby recorded 203 cases from Jan. 30 to Feb. 5, 2022.
From Jan. 23 to 29, 2022.389 cases were reported.
A number of Henry's health orders – such as ones limiting restaurant capacity, and banning wedding receptions – expire next week, and she did not give guidance on which ones will be renewed, and which ones will not. Instead, she said she will provide an update next week.
"What you will hear next week will be the details of how we're going to be moving forward," she said.
Eliminating the B.C. Vaccine Card is not one of the changes that she is considering.
She said the vaccine cards "absolutely" serve a scientific purpose. Not only do they act as an incentive for people to get vaccinated, but they limit exposure between people in higher-risk indoor settings, she said.
Henry then drew an analogy between how big a difference there is between what vaccinated and unvaccinated people face in those settings to the difference between herself and Canadian soccer star Christine Sinclair when it comes to playing that sport.
"It's like saying, 'Christine Sinclair and I both play soccer,'" Henry said. "There's a qualitative difference in one is more likely to score a goal than the other."
The difference, however, between vaccinated people getting COVID-19 and unvaccinated people getting the disease is not nearly as stark in the current Omicron wave as it was during the Delta wave.
People who are not fully vaccinated represent about 18% of B.C.'s total population.
Between Feb. 1 and Feb. 7, people not fully vaccinated accounted for 24.3 per cent of cases, according to new government data. Between Jan. 25 and Feb. 7, those individuals accounted for 31 per cent of hospitalizations.
Regardless, Henry has made it clear that a substantial loosening of restrictions is not going to happen because she prefers what she calls the "dimmer-switch" approach of slowly allowing more interactions.
Counts for newly discovered cases have lost value as an indicator of how widespread COVID-19 is in B.C. because vaccinated people with mild symptoms have been told to not get tested, and to simply self-isolate.
- with files from Glen Korstrom, Business In Vancouver
