B.C. health officials have ordered nightclubs and banquet halls to close immediately as the number of COVID-19 cases linked to them continue to keep increasing.

Dr. Bonnie Henry also says all bars, pubs, and restaurants will have to stop selling alcohol at 10 p.m., and these venues are required to close by 11 p.m., unless they’re also serving food, in which case, they’ll be allowed to stay open longer.

“In many cases what we are seeing is large numbers of people being exposed, inadvertently, in those environments,” she said. “Particularly in some of the nightclubs and the bars, and at the parties that we’ve seen. In many cases, fuelled by the use of alcohol.”

Further, music at these venues will have to be ‘no louder than the volume of normal conversation’ so people don’t have to raise their voices while speaking in public.

The new measures come as the province reported 429 cases of COVID-19 over the Labour Day long weekend, nine of which were in the Interior, for a provincial total of 6,591 cases, 460 in the Interior.

There are now 1,386 active cases of COVID-19 in B.C., with 32 people in hospital, of which 12 are in critical care. There were also two new deaths in long-term care, bringing the death toll to 212 people.

Dr. Henry says the restrictions are needed to try and ‘get rid of the late night temptation’ when alcohol is involved.

“We recognize that these venues have tried. And we’ve made adjustments but there are still exposures happening, and both staff and customers are being put at risk,” she said. “So that is the reason that we are putting in these additional restrictions today.”

Health Minister Adrian Dix says he knows that people are tired of the restrictions, but he says people need to help flatten the COVID-19 curve once again.