With the reopening process underway in BC, people are starting to ease up on cautionary measures such as using hand sanitizer, which is really not good or productive. Even though businesses are opening back up, we are far from being out of the woods. By people being more lax with safety measures, they are putting us all at a much higher risk of contracting COVID-19. It’s been almost a month since a new case was announced on Vancouver Island, but we still need to be cautious.
While our health officials have given the go-ahead for phase two of the provincial reopening, and with phase three potentially set to launch sometime this month, it is important to note that most people who contract the disease have mild symptoms or are even asymptomatic, which means that there might be a lot of cases that go undiagnosed and therefore, unnoticed. This is problematic because it means that if you just look at the numbers, you will get easily deceived.
All of this isn’t to say that the situation hasn’t improved for BC in the past month and a half, because it definitely has. However, this is a critique of people so readily disobeying the recommended precautions that have been so crucial in stopping the spread of the virus thus far.
The province and country are still taking precautions to protect their citizens. These measures include shutting down, until October 31, ports to ships carrying more than 100 passengers. Even though it is a good move on the government’s part, it will take a huge toll on Victoria’s local economy—the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority says that the cruise-ship industry contributes over $130 million per year to the regional economy. However, it’s a very necessary move, and it reinforces the fact that people need to take the precaution seriously: if the government is willing to give up that amount of money to keep citizens safe, COVID-19 is still a very real threat to our health and wellbeing.
It’s very hard to predict what will happen in the coming months, but the more precautions we take now, the better it will be in the long run.