B.C. health officials to provide Christmas Eve update on COVID-19
CTV
B.C.'s health minister and top doctor are scheduled to discuss the COVID-19 situation in the province during a news conference Friday morning.
CTVNewsVancouver.ca will be streaming the news conference live at 10 a.m.
The Christmas Eve event will be the second time Adrian Dix and Dr. Bonnie Henry have taken questions from reporters this week. On Tuesday, the pair announced a new round public health restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
Tuesday's announcement came a little more than 24 hours after a previous round of restrictions - announced last week - took effect.
In the meantime, B.C.'s coronavirus caseload has continued to soar. The province added 2,046 new infections to its total on Thursday, breaking its all-time record for daily cases for the third consecutive day.
The rolling seven-day average for new cases also hit an all-time high Thursday, reaching 1,167. That record, too, is likely to keep climbing. B.C. would need to add just 790 cases on Friday to keep the rolling average rising.
The measures introduced Tuesday - including the closure of bars, nightclubs and gyms and the cancellation of all organized events such as wedding receptions - have been met with confusion and frustration by business owners in the affected industries.
Critics have argued that the rules unfairly target the industries that have been forced to close, noting that seated venues - from restaurants to Rogers Arena - have been allowed to continue operating with reduced capacity, while bars and gyms have not.
It was unclear whether Dix and Henry would be announcing more restrictions Friday. A media advisory issued ahead of the news conference did not suggest that more changes were on the way.
