Health officials in B.C. are hoping that some restrictions in place because of COVID-19 could start to be eased in about month from now.

New data from officials show that B.C. has had success in flattening the curve so far, largely because restrictions aimed at limiting the spread of the virus were brought in quickly.

But, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says it is still going to be a long time before our day-to-day lives return to normal, even if the rate of cases becomes stagnant. She says people will likely need to be thinking about staying close to home, like they are now, in some ways for probably another 12 to 18 months.

“It is not going to be the same. We are not going back to right now what we had in December. It’s not going to be the same,” she said. “Our normal for the coming months, and it may be for some time – is going to be modifications of what we are seeing right now.”

Henry says the pandemic won’t be over until a significant portion of people are immune to COVID-19 or have access to a vaccine.

“What we need to focus on for the coming weeks and months is just the right amount of restriction so that we don’t end up having those explosive growth so we don’t end up overwhelming our healthcare system and our critical care system,” she added.

As an example, Henry says when talking about schools potentially “reopening,” that would likely not be a full reopening, and could possibly mean a gradual return for some students or having different grades being physically at school at different times.

Provincial modelling shows at our current rate of new cases, the number of hospitalizations could continue to drop if we maintain community contact between 40 and 60 per cent of normal.

Right now, data says community contact is at about 30 per cent in B.C.

Data indicates that if society returned to normal in B.C., the spread of COVID-19 would increase exponentially and, almost instantly, the rate of hospitalizations would likely grow an out-of-control rate like some jurisdictions have seen.

Henry also says she thinks international events like conferences will not be happening anywhere in the world this year.

“Italy is reeling, Spain is reeling, the United States is still recovering and we’re thinking about that,” she said. “But we will be increasing our connections with our family, with our close connections here, in B.C. and across Canada and I think in North America.”

Henry says she expects some restrictions against travel within our borders will happen sooner, saying it’s important to be able to do things like check in on loved ones.

“International travel the way that we used to think of it, meetings where we all got together, conferences, those are not going to happen this year. Those are not going to happen this year anywhere in the world, and we’re all looking at this.”

Health officials are giving latest modelling for #covid19 cases to date/ projections for BC.

Graph below shows # of people in ICU, and where that # could be depending on when restrictions are eased. It shows hospitalizations would grow hugely within a month if we “reopened” now. pic.twitter.com/yP57qrJYcJ

— Colton Davies (@ColtonDavies_) April 17, 2020