Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix are set to present the latest round of COVID-19 modelling at 2 p.m. PT, Thursday.
The latest numbers are expected to show the recent trends in age of those getting sick with COVID-19 and those dying from the virus.
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British Columbia has seen an overall decrease in the number of people over the age of 80 getting severely ill from the virus, as more of the elderly are vaccinated.
The presentation will be carried live at 2 p.m. on the Global BC website, on BC1 and on our Facebook page.
The province is also expected to provide an update on ongoing COVID-19 restrictions in B.C.
Indoor dining, adult group fitness activities, social gatherings and events are banned until at least April 19. The province has already indicated those restrictions will be extended but have not confirmed when the formal extension will be announced.
The independent BC COVID-19 Modelling Group did release its own modelling on Wednesday. The contributors to the report include UBC mathematical biologist Sally Otto, Dean Karlen from UVic and TRIUMF, Caroline Colijn from SFU and Jens von Bergmann from MountainMath.
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The independent modelling found the growth of variants of concern (B.1.1.7 and P.1) have driven recent rise in cases and transmission must be reduced by at least 40% to control case growth.
The researchers also found hospitalization numbers are projected to rise above capacity in May, unless virus transmission is brought under control and that the vaccination program needs to target those with the most contacts so that infection and hospitalization rates can be reduced over the next two to three months.
