Thread by @j_mcelroy

🚨 B.C.’S NEW OMICRON PLAN IS OUT 🚨

- All indoor organized gatherings (including weddings) banned
- Bars, nightclubs, gyms, fitness centres closed
- Rapid tests expanded in the coming weeks
- Surgeries postponed starting Jan. 4

There is a lot, and I’ll try and break it down

Here is what we know about the new public health orders on gatherings.

Restaurants still open, but six people maximum to a table.

These rules are in addition to the ones announced on Friday.

On rapid tests, the province is expecting to get 700,000 new tests in the next ten days, and hoping for 11 million from the feds in January

Here's the outline of where they will be going

Note: current plan is schools keep going in January

On third doses, the province plans to increase the pace in January, to anywhere between 190,000 overall shots a week to 325,000 shots a week.

Convention Centre being reopened.

For comparison, from early June to late July we were doing 420,000 total shots a week.

The province effectively believes the mental health toll of a travel ban or advisory over Christmas is greater than the increased transmission that will occur as a result.

At the same time, they emphasized the need for people to take personal actions to reduce risk.

So.

What changed between late last week when B.C. put in some restrictions and “followed the science”, and today when more were put in?

Government says increased hospitalizations in the U.K and Quebec were a factor, more data out of Denmark, reality of increasing case counts here.

I know there’s a lot of questions and a lot of feelings at the moment, but this is the information I have.

I’d encourage folks to watch the press conference and look to other accounts for any new details if they can’t watch.

Back around 3 with numbers and charts.