COVID-19 numbers continue to remain low in BC over the weekend.
🎧 Get the Podcast right into your feed: Apple Podcasts / Google Play
📷 Chief Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry provides an update on COVID-19 on May 30, 2020/ via Province of British Columbia
COVID-19 numbers continue to remain low in BC over the weekend. There were no new deaths reported on Saturday. There were 11 new cases of the virus, all of them in ongoing outbreaks at senior care homes on the lower mainland.
The Provincial Health Officer spent most of her update on Saturday, reassuring parents and teachers that today's return to classrooms is safe. Dr. Bonnie Henry says she is confident and excited about the reopening of schools, given BC's low infection rate. Henry says she has held discussions with members of the BC Teachers' Federation who did express concerns about older teachers and those with underlying health conditions returning to work. The doctor admits she does expect to see some COVID-19 infections in schools over the next two weeks, but she says public health officers and their teams are ready to handle it.
Meanwhile, the Nanaimo Ladysmith School District says it has hired 14 extra custodians to ensure new cleaning protocols are met. The district expects just over half of its 15,000 students will return to class this week, but not all of them on the same days. District spokesperson Dale Burgos says each school has created student schedules to limit the number of students in attendance on any given day. Students in Kindergarten to Grade 5 will attend two days per week, while those in grade 6 to 12 will attend once per week. Dale Burgos says vulnerable students will be allowed to attend class full time if requested. School playgrounds will also reopen today.
It looks like tubing will be allowed on the Cowichan River this summer after all. The district had banned the popular summer past time and told the local tube rental company that it would not get a business license this year. However, the Tube Shack's Facebook page has posted an announcement that it will open for business on June the 27th, but with new rules in place. Now, tubers must book a reservation and tubing will be limited to 40 people per hour, in keeping with the provincial health order that limits gatherings to 50 people. The company says it will sanitize the tubes after each use and will provide wet bags for people to take their keys with them in the water since it can no longer hold on to customers keys for them.
Today is lottery day for 1500 Nanaimo residents hoping to win a spot at the drive-in being sponsored by the Nanaimo Clippers. The Junior A hockey team is hosting a series of drive-in movies, starting June the 12th. It will be limited to 50 cars per show. The first two nights will be for season ticket holders only, but a random draw will take place for the general public, starting today, for three nights of drive-ins on the following weekend. The Clippers had to modify plans to comply with a new provincial health order directing drive-ins to provide washrooms with running water. The Clippers organization says it will provide portable washrooms and running water at the undisclosed drive-in location.
This update is made possible, thanks to a grant from the Local Journalism Initiative of the Community Radio Fund of Canada, Heritage Canada and listeners like you. If you'd like to support and grow local news initiatives like this, please get on board with a sustaining donation at chly.ca/donate.
Written and reported by: Lisa Cordasco, News Director for CHLY 101.7FM.
Have a tip? Email: news@chly.ca Find us on social media at Twitter: @lisacordasco / @chly1017FM
Funded by Sustaining Donors and the Community Radio Fund of Canada and Heritage Canada’s Local Journalism Initiative. Sustain CHLY’s News Department for many years to come by signing up for a monthly Sustaining Donation.
