Does B.C. need another COVID-19 circuit breaker? Here's what doctors are saying
CTV
The announcement of tough new COVID-19 restrictions in Ontario has left many B.C. residents wondering if their government will soon follow suit.
Protect our Province B.C., a group of independent health-care workers and researchers, including some prominent medical doctors, has already called for a three-week circuit breaker to combat unprecedented levels of COVID-19 transmission fuelled by the fast-spreading Omicron variant.
On Monday, Dr. Lyne Filiatrault, a retired emergency physician who spent years at Vancouver General Hospital, and is part of the group, told CTV News the province has been entirely reactive in its policies since the first wave of the pandemic, and that needs to change because of Omicron’s infectiousness.
“You want a grade (for B.C.'s Omicron health policy)? D, F, take your pick,” she said.
A circuit breaker, which in Filiatrault’s view would at the minimum close non-essential businesses and reduce capacity at others below 50 per cent, would be a pause aimed at slowing transmission.
But not everyone agrees that new restrictions are necessary. Dr. Brian Conway of the Vancouver Infectious Disease Centre argued B.C.'s current measures could suffice – if they're properly enforced.
"The main problem we would have with stricter measures is: Would people follow them, or try to find ways around them?" Conway said in an interview with CTV Morning Live on Monday.
Conway argued that better access to rapid tests and following through on the existing COVID-19 restrictions – which would include more policing of social gatherings – would help the province through this latest phase of the pandemic.
He also noted that COVID-19 hospitalization numbers haven't seen a major surge in recent weeks. There were 220 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in B.C. as of Friday, up about 15 per cent from the previous week, but well below the province's all-time high of 515 recorded back in April.