B.C. health officials making announcement about respiratory illness season

B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry are scheduled to make an announcement Thursday regarding this year's respiratory illness season.

B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry are scheduled to make an announcement Thursday regarding this year's respiratory illness season.

Their planned news conference follows one day after CTV News reported provincial officials are bringing back a masking mandate for health-care workers in medical settings, and after weeks of surging test-positive COVID-19 cases in local hospitals. 

Ahead of the announcement, infectious disease specialist Dr. Brian Conway suggested the pending masking requirement – which is scheduled to take effect Oct. 3, according to a government memo – should be viewed as "the beginning of a conversation."

"To me, the word 'mandate' is language of the pandemic. I think we're in endemic COVID, we have to have a long-term view," Conway said. "I think of it more as guidance and expectations, with the understanding that we all want to work together to reduce COVID transmission as much as possible."

Conway, who is the medical director at the Vancouver Infections Diseases Centre, noted the province has seen a "significant increase" in COVID-19 infections over the last month, which he said should serve as a reminder about the importance of basic precautions.

"We need to get vaccines, we need to stay home if we're sick, we need to wash our hands, and sometimes we need to wear masks," he said. "That is the conversation that we have to have, globally, in the era of endemic COVID."

This is a developing story and will be updated.