While over half of BC’s COVID-19 cases have so far recovered, the province’s top doctor doesn’t think people will ease up in their efforts to contain the spread of the virus.

The number of serious infections in B.C. appears to be growing at a much slower compared to in Ontario and Quebec, leading health officials to believe the restrictions are working.

“This is our flattening of our curve,” Dr. Bonnie Henry said. “We are hopeful that that will continue, but we can’t take our foot off the pedal yet.”

There have however been 31 fatalities in the province as of Thursday afternoon, with six reported on Thursday alone – the most in a single day.

Henry says if people stay home, avoid unnecessary travel and keep physical distance from people they don’t live with, it will help ensure that hospitals don’t get overwhelmed like in Italy and other parts of Europe.

“We’re now at the point where people who need hospital care are getting it,” she added. “We are hopeful it will continue to be a slow, steady pace and we’ll be able to manage it and care for everybody that needs it, both for COVID-19 and everybody else who needs our health care system at this point.”

However, Dr. Henry admits some of the messaging to B.C. residents could have been clearer, but she believes that most people will continue to keeping doing the right thing and stay away from each other.

“I think the messages they get when they come into the country sometimes need to be beefed up, and that I’ve heard from many people, ‘Oh, I wasn’t really told that I couldn’t do this, or I couldn’t do that,'” she said.

“So that is something that we are working with the federal government on, to make it crystal clear for people that if you are in quarantine, it means that you are a risk and we don’t want you to pass it on.”

Health Minister Adrian Dix too said he is inspired by how people have responded so far to the many restrictions imposed by the province.

“However, it can’t be 80 per cent, it can’t be 85 per cent, it’s got to be 100 per cent to support our healthcare workers, and to speak to all those people who had their surgeries cancelled and say to them that this was an enormous sacrifice but something happened here that the whole community got behind, and that people are with you in your struggle,” said Dix.

Dix says people will need to keep up these restrictions for the foreseeable future.

“The growth of COVID-19 in BC will depend on all of us and so this is a message we have to deliver everyday,” he added. “With respect to people coming back to Canada, I simply say that we have to ensure that that message is delivered for their sake, but also for the sake of the entire community.”