On Thursday, Health Minister Adrian Dix said cases in British Columbia are trending up, though not as significantly as hospitalizations. He said the province continues to focus on vaccination as its best defense against COVID-19, reiterating that vaccines continue to provide strong protection by making hospitalization five times less likely and death seven times less likely. The National Immunization Advisory Committee has warned that the respiratory disease season will be challenging this fall. “That’s where we expect to be dealing with COVID-19 again and the need for people to get an extra dose in the fall, regardless of how many doses they’ve gotten so far,” Dix said. The province has so far not signaled that any new public health restrictions are on the way to stem the new wave of Omicron, which is driven by the BA.5 subvariant. More to come.
