B.C. health officials announce new circuit breaker restrictions in Northern Health

British Columbia’s health officials have announced a new series of circuit breaker restrictions for residents living in the Northern Health Authority amid spiking COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.

Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix held a live press conference to announce the new restrictions, highlighting that there is a concern about the growing number of unvaccinated young people who are ending up in hospitals as a result of the virus.

“We are doing everything we can to support the north and we will continue to do that, but we also need to ask people in the north to do more,” said Health Minister Adrian Dix in regards to the new restrictions.

The new restrictions announced on Thursday, October 14, will come into effect as of midnight and will last through to Friday, November 19.

As of Friday, personal gatherings — both indoors and outdoors — are restricted to only those who are vaccinated and in-person worship services are cancelled.

For vaccinated people, gatherings will be limited to five people indoors and 25 people outdoors.

As for organized events, including things like sporting events, they will be restricted to 50 fully vaccinated people indoors and 100 fully vaccinated people outdoors.

Worship services will be required to move to virtual gatherings only during the Northern Health circuit breaker as well.

“With the amount of transmission we are seeing in the North, it is no longer safe to have a mixing of people who are unvaccinated,” said Dr. Henry during the press conference.

Dr. Henry also informed the media that a young person in their 20s died from COVID-19 on Thursday and restrictions are being deployed to help limit transmission in the community while also relieving pressures on hospitals.

Henry says the Delta variant spreads faster and causes more severe illness, which is being seen in the north where hospitals are filling with young people who are struggling to breathe.

Dix said that 58 people have been transported by plane in recent weeks out of northern B.C. hospitals to other parts of the province, particularly to hospitals in Island Health.

The majority of these patients were diagnosed with COVID-19, while several of them were individuals who needed treatment for other diseases but facilities were too crowded.

Of the people transported from Northern Health, only one was fully vaccinated.

As of Wednesday, Northern Health officials reported 689 active cases of the coronavirus.

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