Coronavirus (COVID-19) Local News

There’ll be no traditional Saanich Fair this September, but the group that runs the popular event is determined to keep it alive online.

When provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry had a couple of friends over for a glass of wine in the front yard of her Victoria home on Sunday afternoon, it wasn’t a typical long-weekend get-together.

Between March 15 and May 2, business break-ins in Victoria and Esquimalt increased from 12 during the same period in 2019, to a whopping 80 this year, close to a seven-fold increase.

Mike Lam was a little wary when his brother Jim changed the message on the marquee outside their Colwood store this spring. “CORONA FOODS, NOT CORONA VIRUS,” it read. No worries. “Everybody seemed to like it,” Mike now says.

B.C. is taking the right approach to messaging during the pandemic to ensure British Columbians follow public health recommendations, says a University of Victoria psychology professor.

Take things slowly, stay informed and consider how your actions affect the people around you: that’s the advice of a Sidney-based family well poised to offer tips to British Columbians as they begin to venture out of self-isolation.

Cathy Novak’s phone flashed “VIHA” and she got a sinking feeling. They’d said the previous day, when she took the drive-thru COVID-19 test, that she could call in a few days for the result. But if it was positive, they’d call her.

Almost 7,000 calls have gone out to B.C. patients to determine who wants to rebook some of the tens of thousands of surgeries and screenings that were postponed to make hospital beds available for those with COVID-19.

Employees of the Comfort Inn and Suites in Victoria are spending a stressful long weekend trying to figure whether they still have jobs. Ryan Smith, the hotel’s food and beverage manager, said employees were blindsided by news Friday that the B.C.

John Hillman raised his fist in triumph, smiling ear-to-ear, after walking the last of 101 laps of the courtyard of his Oak Bay retirement home on Saturday morning.