COVID restrictions should be targeted
I’m all in favor of B.C. imposing “circuit breaker restrictions” but have to ask why the long delay. They knew the case count was increasing weeks ago. Why the wait?
I also feel this one size fits all policy is wrong. For months now the driver in the case count has been Vancouver and Fraser Valley. Why not impose stricter measures in those areas and other hotspots?
It seems they are punishing everybody for failures that occur elsewhere. Why should a restaurant in, say, Williams Lake or Fort Nelson, have to face the same restrictions just because virus transmissions are occurring elsewhere in the province?
Also publish case numbers occurring by business sectors so we can make sense of why restrictions for certain types of businesses are needed. Why the sudden about face on religious gathering? Why do they think the rules in place yesterday won’t work next Sunday? Where are the infections actually happening and why? Target those locations and causes.
Why are we still allowing travel? They say no non-essential travel but no enforcement. BC Ferries are still operating as normal, air travel both in and out of province is still allowed, hundreds of tourists and travelers from other provinces are still arriving with no restrictions, U.S. travelers are still coming in with no effective control on their travel, police are reluctant to ticket large groups protesting without masks. In short, why try to control some areas of possible infection and then leave other obvious high risk activities free from effective restrictions?
As I said I support restrictions but only if they are fair and targeted at businesses and activities that actually are contributing to the spread of the virus. A year in and the government should have sufficient data available to support targeting high risk geographic areas and activities.
Barry Kimble
Crofton
