B.C. health officials say there isn’t a specific number of cases that would lead to the province imposing more COVID-19 restrictions like lockdowns.

Deputy Public Health Officer, Dr. Reka Gustafson public health teams are monitoring the pandemic and the impacts it is having on people.

“At the moment, we have a concerning number of new infections,” she said. “At the moment, our hospitalizations are also stable, the number of people in ICU remains stable, and these numbers and these indicators are being monitored all the time.”

Last Friday, B.C. granted new powers that allowed for regional public health orders to try and combat the rising number of cases in the Lower Mainland. So far, no such orders have been issued by public health teams.

Gustafson says the type of restrictions that may come in will depend on how COVID-19 is spreading, which right now is largely due to gatherings in private homes.

“That is our guidance for designing interventions, for delivering interventions,” she said. “If you look back at the interventions, the guidelines and the orders that have been put in place, they were in response to ongoing transmissions in certain settings related to certain activities.”

She adds health officials are using tools such as contact tracing and testing to respond to outbreaks and transmission when needed.

“Its important for people to know that thought goes into all of this all the time and one of the things that we do in British Columbia and of course throughout the world is to monitor this epidemic and respond to where transmission actually occurs,” Gustafson added. “Its a science based response so its not something that we can predict ahead of time.”

Speaking on Thursday, Gustafson says the goal of public health officials will be continue to minimize severe illness and death while keeping communities as open as possible.

“We are going to see fluctuations and surges in some communities. And when we do, increased effort and stepped up focus will be applied, using all of the public health measures we have available to us,” she added.