As the province prepares to ease some COVID-19 restrictions, B.C.’s top doctor says she will be looking for signs to see if the virus begins to spread undetected.

Dr. Bonnie Henry says the reopening of schools and businesses will depend on testing and the ability of public health officials to trace the contacts of people who have tested positive.

“We need to find that sweet spot as I call it, I guess, where we have more connections but not too many that we allow this virus to take off again,” she said. “The things that we’ll be watching for very carefully are the number of new cases in the community that aren’t linked to known transmissions.”

It’s as Henry says a number of new cases being reported in the province are linked to ongoing community outbreaks.

“We’re going to look at the new cases that come up [and see if] they connected to somebody who worked at one of the poultry plants for example. If we start to see unlinked cases increase in communities, geographically spread out around the province, then those are warning signs that there’s more transmission than we have been detecting,” Henry added.

“There have been a number [of cases] every day this week that have risen in the community where we have not initially found their links. That’s why we are still in that phase where we still need to be so careful.”

Henry said for certain that B.C. residents will not be returning to the levels of socializing that they enjoyed back in December any time soon.

“This is not going back to where we were. We know from the modelling that if we go back to having large groups of people together in certain circumstances, particularly congregating indoors, where we know the risk is greater,” she said.

“As we’ve learned from this virus, people can spread it when they have very mild illness or before they show symptoms or realize they have symptoms.”

Last week, the province announced some details of a plan to reopen parts of the economy, with among other things allowing gatherings of two to six people ahead of the long weekend, should the current trend in cases continue.