Phase 1 – BC's Restart Plan
The phased approach to BC's Restart Plan is on pause for the duration of province-wide restrictions.
Last updated: June 24, 2020
What happened in Phase 1?
British Columbia acted quickly to protect seniors and people at risk and to ensure our health care system could respond to COVID-19.
Provincial protective measures during Phase 1 included:
- Declared a public health emergency and a provincial state of emergency
- Mandated physical distancing and provided hand hygiene and cleaning guidelines for people, businesses and essential services to follow
- Banned mass gathering of more than 50 people
- Essential services were allowed to operate
- Closed dine-in service at bars and restaurants, and non-essential personal services, such as spas, tattoo parlours, and hair and nail salons
- Reduced in-classroom learning and child care
- Required travellers to develop and stick to a 14-day isolation plan when arriving in B.C. from abroad
- Restricted visitors to health care and assisted living facilities to protect some of our most vulnerable people
- Postponed non-urgent and elective surgeries while maintaining urgent and emergency procedures
- Closed all B.C. provincial parks, including overnight camping
- Launched the BC COVID-19 Action Plan to help individuals and businesses
Federal protective measures included:
- Banned the entry of foreign nationals by air travel into Canada
- Closed the Canada-U.S. border to all non-essential traffic
- Emergency order under the federal Quarantine Act requires any person entering Canada by air, sea or land to self-isolate for 14 days
