Capacity limits for indoor sporting events, indoor concerts, movie theatres, dance and symphony events and a host of other indoor, organized events, will be lifted effective Monday, Oct. 25. (File Photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

RESTRICTIONS LOOSEN

Live event capacity limits to be rescinded amid higher vaccination rates

Oct 19, 2021 | 3:31 PM

NANAIMO — The province is lifting indoor capacity restrictions as rates of people who have received at least two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine continues to increase.

People in areas with high vaccinations rates, including Island Health, will be able to attend events at 100 per cent capacity, up from 50 per cent, for inside organized events and gatherings starting Monday, Oct. 25.

These changes apply to indoor sporting events, concerts, movie theaters, dance and symphony events, as well as other indoor organized events like weddings, funeral receptions and parties.

“We’re hoping to leverage the benefits of the vaccine card and this is an important first step of that and we’ll be monitoring carefully and looking at if we can take away additional restrictions depending on how things evolve over the next few weeks,” provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said.

The changes take effect one day after the BC Vaccine Card program broadens its scope and requires full vaccination against COVID-19 to access most public, non-essential indoor settings.

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People will also no longer required to remain seated in restaurants and pubs, but the indoor mask requirement remains in effect for all indoor gatherings and events.

Some regional capacity limit orders do remain in effect in places such as Fraser East and parts of the Northern and Interior Health regions.

The province also provided an update on COVID-19 cases in schools and how they impact the greater community.

Cases amongst school populations have decreased over recent weeks, in conjunction with increased vaccination according to public health.

Dr. Henry said as we get into the cold and flu season, some other respiratory illnesses are popping back up in communities which helped account for a spike in testing beginning in September.

“Across the board we had an increase in rates of testing in this age group and we had a steady decrease in the percent who tested positive. It’s telling us that we are looking for this in younger people and we’re finding it and those rates have now come down.”

The province recently recorded its first positive case of influenza for the season, as public health measures and travel restrictions last year made the seasonal flu virus almost non-existent.

Henry added they are also very concerned about the rates of severe illness in children, however an increase in hospitalizations among young children in the United States hasn’t manifested in B.C.

“In the past week we have had five new admissions in the 0-4 age group, one in the 5-11 age group and one person 12-17 who were admitted to hospital. There were no admissions in the school-age children to the ICU in the last week.”

Henry also spoke about school clusters, which they classify as 2 or more positive cases occurring in a 14 day period. Data from public health showed only 12 per cent, or 46 schools, reported a cluster in the first five weeks of this school season.

A total of 80 clusters have been reported so far, accounting for 314 cases, or about a quarter of the cases among that school-aged group.

Across the entire province, only one-third of schools have reported a cluster.

Island Health recorded 53 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, including 24 in the central region. It continues to represent a downward trend for daily case counts, which were upwards of 70-80 through September.

Active cases dropped four, to 433. The central Island region accounts for the most active cases with 205. Southern Vancouver Island has 184 while 44 are in the north.

There is a data discrepancy between Island Health and the province, based on the timing of daily COVID-19 results. NanaimoNewsNOW reports local verified data from Island Health.

The BC Centre for Disease Control lists 47 patients admitted to hospital for COVID-19 on Vancouver Island, 29 of whom are in ICU.

Across B.C., 560 new cases were confirmed with active cases dropping marginally to 4,913.

Provincial hospitals have 382 patients admitted including 146 receiving intensive care, the vast majority of which have no vaccination history.

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