Categories: Lifestyle

BC Vaccine Card and mask mandates to end in the province soon

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Talk about a big afternoon! Following in the footsteps of Alberta and Ontario, officials announced today the end of the BC Vaccine Card, as well as mask mandates, starting this week. News came during a press conference held early this afternoon. Here’s the rundown.

Citing a high vaccination rate among those eligible (Among those 12+, 56% or so boosted, 90% with two doses) as well as decreasing hospitalizations, Dr. Bonnie Henry said the province was ready to move forward with removing restrictions.

Starting on Friday, March 11th at 12:10 am, the face coverings order will be lifted. Alongside this move, some other things will change then as well.

long-term care visitation being fully restored,
overnight and youth child camps coming back, and
faith gathering capacity limits being lifted

It should be noted that the removal of the face coverings order will still have exceptions. Some examples include health care settings (like a physician’s office), however, most locations will have it as an option, and not a necessity.

The removal of the BC Vaccine Card will take a little longer. The current plan is to remove it starting on Friday, April 8th, 2022. At that time, business will also transition from the ‘COVID-19 Safety Plan’ to the ‘communicable disease safety plan’, and vaccine requirements for housing at post-secondary institutions will be lifted.

So yeah folks, big changes are coming to the province, and the biggest ones are definitely the removal of the BC Vaccine Card and mask mandates! As always, if you’d like to see this straight from the source, then we suggest you check out the BC Government website, which should be updated sometime today.