Infectious disease experts weigh in on B.C.'s high COVID-19 numbers

Dr. Srinivas Murthy is worried about the direction British Columbia's COVID-19 rates are heading.

But Murthy, a critical care specialist who was named Canada's research chair in pandemic preparedness last summer, isn't all that surprised. Especially as news about new variants first seen in Britain and Brazil has emerged over the past few months. 

"It's a major issue," he said.

"I think the increased transmissibility and the increased severity of the disease are both there with variants and we need to be especially cautious over the next period."

On Friday, B.C. recorded 908 new cases of COVID-19 — one of the highest numbers since the pandemic began. 

There have been 140 new confirmed COVID-19 cases that are variants of concern, for a total of 1,912 cases. The province says there are 258 active variant cases in B.C.

With cases climbing, some infectious disease experts are thinking about what more could be done to stop the virus from spreading.

Rapid testing

Caroline Colijn, a COVID-19 modeller at Simon Fraser University, worries about B.C. health officials loosening some restrictions, like allowing people to gather outside in groups of 10 and holding limited faith services. 

"If we want to stay away from the very blunt instrument of telling everyone to stay inside all the time by themselves, then we're really going to need to roll out more of the tools in our toolkit to stop transmission," she said. 

One of the tools Colijn would like to see more of is rapid testing at high-risk sites. She says it's been used successfully in professional sports and the film industry and it could be used more widely in B.C.

Murthy thinks more support for workplaces to shut down if they experience an outbreak would be a good idea — one that Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says she and her team have been working on. 

Vaccines for hot spots

Vancouver Infectious Disease Centre medical director Dr. Brian Conway says he's also concerned about B.C.'s rise in numbers.

Conway thinks it's mostly due to community spread, fuelled by the more contagious variants.   

"These are individuals who are deciding to engage in activities that are known to transmit the virus and they're being indoors too long with too many people, often without masks," he said. 

But Conway thinks B.C.'s policies are striking the right balance given what researchers now know about the virus. 

"If we give people more choices of what they're allowed to do it may lead to better adherence," he said. "Although it does need to be monitored very closely."

Conway agrees that B.C. could be doing more testing. He says the rate of testing in B.C. is about two-thirds of that in other parts of Canada. 

He would also like to see more vaccine doses going to hot spots like communities and workplaces where spread is high, similar to what the province already did in Prince Rupert.