B.C. is handling COVID-19 nearly as well as one could hope. Now comes the tricky part — keeping the virus in check, slowly easing some restrictions and maintaining social cohesion. All at the same time.
First, the good news: by all metrics, B.C. is handling the COVID-19 outbreak nearly as well as one could hope.
The curve of the outbreak was flattened in a month and hospitalizations have fallen steadily since the beginning of April.
Analysis by CBC News also shows that of the 40 jurisdictions in Canada, the United States or western Europe with at least five million people, B.C. has the lowest number of per capita deaths.
But now comes the tricky part — keeping the virus in check, slowly easing some restrictions and maintaining social cohesion.
All at the same time.
“It’s finding the right balance, and to communicate that is difficult,” said Frederick Grouzet, a psychology professor at the University of Victoria.
Grouzet, who studies how people react to fears or threats and how they perceive risk, said easing restrictions during a global viral outbreak poses a particular challenge in messaging.
That’s because in some ways, it’s straightforward to tell everyone to stay inside and avoid group interactions.
But as hospitalizations continue to fall, and the province transitions from trying to stop widespread outbreaks to containing a minimal level of cases, trying to regulate a “new normal” — as Health Minister Adrian Dix has phased it several times — will be harder.
‘It’s not an open bar’
If the B.C. government, as expected, loosens some restrictions, the changes are almost certain to be open to interpretation. Tolerance levels for how far people are willing to relax, and what they are willing to tolerate from fri