{"id":248934,"date":"2020-03-18T19:28:08","date_gmt":"2020-03-18T23:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=248934"},"modified":"2020-03-18T19:28:08","modified_gmt":"2020-03-18T23:28:08","slug":"b-c-declares-state-of-emergency-over-covid-19-to-help-maintain-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/03\/18\/b-c-declares-state-of-emergency-over-covid-19-to-help-maintain-services\/","title":{"rendered":"B.C. declares state of emergency over COVID 19 to help maintain services"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The move follows Tuesday’s declaration of a public health emergency in B.C. over COVID-19. (Pixabay photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

VANCOUVER \u2014 Solicitor General Mike Farnworth is declaring a state of emergency in British Columbia to allow the preservation of supply chains delivering groceries and other essential items.<\/p>\n

The move follows Tuesday’s declaration of a public health emergency in B.C. over COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Farnworth says it will also mean a quicker, co-ordinated response between federal, provincial and local governments, calling it an \u201call hands on deck\u201d approach.<\/p>\n

In Vancouver, Mayor Kennedy Stewart is convening a special virtual council meeting on Thursday aimed at getting support for the declaration of a local state of emergency during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Stewart says the measure would allow the city to take action against people who are hoarding.<\/p>\n

It would also let the city act on businesses that have remained open when they should be closed to prevent the spread of the disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very concerned that people still are not taking this seriously,\u201d Stewart told a news conference on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Pharmacists in British Columbia, meanwhile, are now able to provide medication refills to patients without an updated prescription from a doctor or nurse practitioner.<\/p>\n

Health Minister Adrian Dix announced the change earlier this week in an effort to avoid non-essential visits to physicians, freeing them up to focus on halting the spread of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

The College of Pharmacists of B.C. says its member can offer refills or emergency supplies of medications, including controlled drugs, such as opioids.<\/p>\n

A statement from the college says this will help patients avoid crowded medical offices, allowing safe social distancing, and will also free up medical professionals to treat more urgent cases.<\/p>\n

The college advises patients with compromised immune systems or those at an increased risk of the more severe effects of COVID-19 to refill prescriptions now, rather than visit a clinic if they do become ill.<\/p>\n

But the statement says there is no need to stockpile medications because that practice could harm the drug supply while putting others at risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation regarding COVID-19 continues to evolve here in B.C.,\u00a0Canada\u00a0and other jurisdictions around the world,\u201d the statement says.<\/p>\n

The college says it is working closely with the Ministry of Health and other partners \u201cto support the response to this new illness as part of B.C.’s health system.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VANCOUVER \u2014 Solicitor General Mike Farnworth is declaring a state of emergency in British Columbia to allow the preservation of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":245836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-248934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248934"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":248936,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248934\/revisions\/248936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}