Thursday, March 28, 2024

Premier Horgan says B.C. now in longest state of emergency in its history

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B.C. Premier John Horgan has extended the state of emergency for the fifth time, resulting in the longest period of emergency the province has ever seen.

Minister of Public Safety Mike Farnworth initially declared a state of emergency on March 18th which was in effect for 14 days.

It was then extended four times by Premier Horgan, on March 31st, April 15th, and April 29th and May 13th.

See also: B.C. economy, social interactions partly resume mid-May with new guidelines in place

Today’s announcement further extends the state of emergency until the end of day on June 10th, 2020. Declarations of emergency can be extended by the province by increments of 14 days at a time.

Much like the last time Premier Horgan extended the emergency, he stated on Wednesday that this emergency has “no likely end in sight”.

B.C. is currently in Phase 2 of its reopening plan after the flattening of the COVID-19 transmission curve.

“As businesses work hard to safely reopen their doors and friends and families carefully expand their social bubbles, we are beginning to see what this global challenge will look like in B.C.,” said Farnworth in a statement.

It is unclear when we will be ready to move into Phase 3, but the Premier insinuated that that might not happen until the middle of June, by which time Minister Adrian Dix and Dr. Bonnie Henry will have had the opportunity to review the impacts of the second phase.

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Brishti Basu
Former Senior Staff Writer and Content Manager at Victoria Buzz.

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