Thought of the Day - June 21 2021 - On the Road Again, Again

It was a year ago last week when we took, what we considered at the time to be, a covert trip to the Interior ( Thought of the Day - June 15 - On the Road Again ). Of course, since then we have seen the machinations of the BC government trying to decide how far they can take travel restrictions, and moreover, how far they can take enforcement. I guess the precedents across the Atlantic Provinces were not enough. They were the most successful at eliminating the dreaded virus, by shutting non-essential inter-provincial car travel, as well as restricting some intra-provincial travel to boot; unfortunately for them, they had no jurisdiction over inter-provincial air travel, thus they added quarantine.

In contrast, here in BC there are even YouTube videos educating those of us that are not interested in embracing the spirit of minimizing travel by suggesting if you are pulled over you should say "travelling to my home" and "travelling for work" and nothing else, in order to avoid a potential fine.

But guess what, as of last week, here in BC we are in Step 2. Step 2 requires at least 65% of the "18+ population" is vaccinated with dose one (another strange measure - Thought of the Day - June 20 2021 - By the Numbers ). This means that province-wide travel is now allowed, and so, once again, folk in the Vancouver region can travel to the Interior.

That said, this time we will probably not do a similar trip. At first, I thought it was due to "COVID-hesitancy"; after all, we spent a full year convincing ourselves that this was bad. But no, if you look at the figures:

This time last year:

• Total number of active cases: 182

• New cases in the last day: 32

• Hospitalized cases: 14

• Intensive care: 6

Today:

• Total number of active cases: 1,389

• New cases in the last day: 109

• Hospitalized cases: 128

• Intensive care: 48

Despite the upbeat BC restart plans, we still a far cry from "officially" returning to the halcyon days of yesteryear.

Cheers

Cliff