B.C.’s COVID-19 death rate of approximately 33 deaths per million people is one of the lowest among jurisdictions in Canada, the U.S. and western Europe with populations of five million or more. Officials and health experts credit its success to a combination of sound decision-making and good fortune.
The day that 60-year-old Cathy Novak got the call from public health authorities on Vancouver Island saying she tested positive for COVID-19, restaurants across British Columbia were already closing after a ban on gatherings of more than 50 people was implemented.
That was March 16.
Five days later, 10 deaths in the province were linked to the novel coronavirus, and Novak, a part-time dental hygienist who attended an international industry conference in Vancouver in early March that drew thousands of people, was struggling to breathe as she lay in an ambulance on her way to a hospital in Victoria.
“At that point, I was feeling a bit hopeless,” Novak said as she struggled to hold back tears in an interview with CBC News in her backyard in Victoria.
“I don’t know if I am coming back home.”
Within a few hours of arriving at the hospital her husband, John McAllister, learned she was placed on a ventilator.
“That was when the doctor told me that if we waited any longer, even one more day, it might have been too late,” he said.
WATCH | Vancouver Island resident describes her experience:
Cathy Novak speaks about her experience being taken by ambulance to hospital with severe symptoms. 0:59
Shutting down spring break
In mid-March, with cases of COVID-19 rising rapidly and with outbreaks in multiple long-term care homes, it appeared that B.C. was poised to be hit particularly hard by the global pandemic.
However, in the months since, the province has been praised for flattening the curve ahead of other regions.
B.C. recorded Canada’s first COVID-19 death on March 8 — at the Lynn Valley Care Centre in North Vancouver.
The current COVID death rate in the province is approximately 33 deaths per million people — one of the lowest among large jurisdictions in Canada, the U.S. and western Europe.
Officials and health experts credit its success to a combination of sound decision-making and good fortune.
“Part of it was timing, part of it was luck, and part of it was embracing what we needed to do and doing it together,” said Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.’s provincial health officer, in an interview with CBC News.
The timing of B.C.’s March break, which began on March 16, was fortuitous.
Unlike in Quebec, where spring break came at the start of the month, when school let out in B.C., health officials were already advising Canadians to cancel all non-essential trips out of the country.
It was a different message in Ontario however, which had March break at the same time as Premier Doug Ford on March 12 told a press conference: “I just want the families and their children to have a good time. Go away, have a good time, enjoy yourselves, and we’re going to be monitoring the situation.”
The government announced the same day that schools would be closed for two weeks following the break.
Beyond the timing of holiday travel, public-heal