Message is clear: British Columbians should avoid all non-essential travel, gatherings

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The long weekend is no time to travel. That is once again the message from the province as COVID-19 case numbers remain very high in B.C.

In the latest update from the province Thursday, 832 new cases were reported, along with another five deaths — that daily case total a little below the record high of 1,013 set earlier in week.

The total number of infections in B.C. since the pandemic began has breached the 100,000 mark, with a total of 1,463 related deaths.

The written statement from Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix also detailed 90 new cases of variants of concern, bringing the total number of cases identified to 2,643 — predominantly the B.1.1.7 variant first identified in the U.K., followed by the P.1 variant associated with Brazil, and the B.1.351 first found in South Africa.

#CovidBC update: 832 new cases since we last reported, for a total of 100,880 cases in BC. There have been five new deaths, for a total of 1,463. To date, 787,549 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in BC. https://t.co/AN4JMEHs9k pic.twitter.com/7yGjXL7NtG

— BC Government News (@BCGovNews) April 2, 2021

There are 192 active variant cases identified in B.C. as of Thursday.

Despite the high daily case counts and concerns about variants of the virus, a group called Liberty Coalition Canada is listing churches vowing to ignore public health orders and hold in-person, public Easter services.

“If your church will open publicly without government-imposed restrictions that violate personal conscience, the nature of worship, or the ability for people to participate (for example: honouring face-mask exemptions and not turning anyone way) and if you are an authorized representative of your church, please submit your church’s information below to be added to this list,” reads a page on the group’s website.

Liberty Coalition Canada lists churches vowing to hold public, in-person Easter services, despite COVID restrictions. 11 are in BC, incl. 2 in Vancouver, 2 in Surrey and 1 in Langley. Surrey RCMP says it "honours right to worship" but has a duty to enforce public health orders.

— Mike Lloyd ☕️ (@llikemoyd) April 2, 2021

Surrey RCMP warns against defying public health orders

There are 11 churches identified on that list in B.C., including some in Vancouver and Surrey.

“Certainly it is a very important weekend for the community and it’s a weekend that typically encourages people gathering and celebrating together, but unfortunately things look different this year,” says Surrey RCMP Cpl. Joanie Sidhu.

“If there is any information that we come to know where groups of individuals are going to be gathering in numbers that exceed what is allowed according to public health orders, we will be following up with those individuals and, where appropriate, issuing violation tickets.”

Sidhu calls it a fine line when it comes to faith.

“We do honour individuals’ rights to their worship, but at the same time, we do have a duty to enforce these public health orders,” she says.

Related articles: 

• B.C. pauses frontline worker COVID-19 vaccination program pending review of AstraZeneca

• British Columbians urged to stay home this Easter weekend amid COVID rise

• B.C. pauses indoor dining, religious gatherings, closes Whistler as COVID-19 cases rise

• B.C. breaks daily COVID-19 record with 1,013 infections

Surrey’s COVID-19 compliance and enforcement team is fully staffed for the long weekend and Sidhu says it will be following up with places of worship to ensure rules are being followed.

The team has completed more than 70,000 checks since the start of the pandemic last year, the vast majority of which have found people complying with public health orders.

“That includes faith-based institutions, places of worship and just people in the community. There is a small-percentage of people who aren’t, and that is where we focus our enforcement efforts,” she tells NEWS 1130.

On Monday, B.C.’s top doctor announced a return to tighter restrictions for religious services in B.C., prohibiting indoor, in-person gatherings and worship services of any size due to the recent rise in COVID-19 infection rates and worries it was being driven, in part, by more transmissible variants of concern.

Just the previous week, it was announced that public health rules around were to be relaxed from March 28 to May 13 to allow limited, indoor religious services through Easter, Passover, and Ramadan.

-With files from Sonia Aslam