Here’s the latest on the COVID-19 pandemic in Surrey, White Rock and beyond for Thursday, May 7. This information will be updated as information becomes available:
• B.C. students’ video project was originally to be dedicated to all Canadians, but due to COVID-19, the students requested it be dedicated to essential workers.
• Gangs may be turning to producing illegal drugs in an effort to get around pandemic border closures and scrutiny on shipping routes, Vancouver police say.
• B.C. Premier John Horgan says he has reached out and offered the NHL a place to play games if the league can find a way to resume its suspended season.
• The B.C. health ministry has started contacting thousands of scheduled surgery patients whose procedures have been delayed or cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, to begin a catch-up program expected to extend into the next two years.
• Delta police say ‘traditional’ scams are continuing to flourish during the pandemic.
• Selected essential workers will have their wages topped up during the ongoing pandemic, with the extra income to be rolled out by individual provinces.
• Surrey’s first quarter financial report for 2020 forecasts a city budget shortfall of between $37 million and $42 million on account of the pandemic.
• A free website is helping people across the Fraser Valley avoid wait times at businesses during the COVID-19 crisis.
• Statistics Canada reported the youth employment rate dropped to 49 per cent at the outset of the pandemic, the lowest since comparable data began being gathered in 1976.
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