Dr. Bonnie Henry handed down several new public health orders on Thursday, Nov. 19, including a ban on all social gatherings across B.C. (BC Government)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

COVID CRACKDOWN

Mandatory masks, social gathering ban among new COVID-19 restrictions in B.C.

Nov 19, 2020 | 3:23 PM

NANAIMO — Masks are now mandatory in all indoor, public spaces across British Columbia.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry issued new public health orders on Thursday, Nov. 19 mandating the use of face coverings when in shopping centres, grocery stores and other public spaces where larger numbers of people gather.

Dr. Henry also extended restrictions previously in place for the Vancouver Coastal and Fraser Health authorities to the entire province.

“We need to go back to what we were doing in March, April and May when we had our pandemic bubble,” Dr. Henry said. “While we’d all hoped we would avoid a second wave, we knew every pandemic we’ve ever had has had more than one wave.”

These health orders are in place for two weeks and can be extended.

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“We want to see a clear and notable difference and slowing of transmission across the province so we can get back into balance.”

Effective Thursday, social gatherings of anyone outside of those living in a person’s immediate household are now banned across B.C.

Also suspended are in-person services at places of worship as well as events which were previously included under the 50-person mass gathering order B.C. has operated under for much of the pandemic.

Exceptions will be made for events like weddings, baptisms and funerals, but those events must be limited to a maximum of 10 people.

Indoor fitness activities such as hot yoga, spin classes and high intensity interval training classes are prohibited.

Sporting events are allowed to continue but teams cannot travel outside their communities. This impacts the BCHL and VIJHL but isn’t expected to impact minor leagues.

Non-essential travel throughout B.C. and to other provinces is advised against but is still allowed. This counters comments from premier John Horgan the day before, who said non-essential travel was prohibited.

A full list of newly implemented public health orders can be found online here.

The province is also due to ramp up enforcement of public health orders across B.C. with fines possible for those who organize or host gatherings of any size.

Dr. Henry said COVID-19 plans in bars and pubs will be specifically monitored. “Those are settings where we have concerns that safety plans may not be followed and people may be mixing in ways which are risky.”

Dr. Henry announced 12 new cases of COVID-19 for the Island Health region on Thursday, bringing the total number of cases to 429 in the health authority.

Across B.C., 538 new cases were confirmed primarily in the Lower Mainland.

A total of 6,929 cases are active across the province. 118 cases are active in the Island Health region including 76 within the central area of the health authority.

Of the active cases, 217 are in hospital, 59 of whom are receiving intensive care.

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