For essential businesses

To protect those most vulnerable, and to make sure that our health system is able to care for those who become severely ill, we are asking people to self-monitor their health and to apply a low threshold when feeling unwell to stay home until they are better.

Related info: Determination of Return to Work of Essential Service Workers Who Have Traveled Out of Canada

Prevent infection and transmission

These common sense practices help prevent infection and transmission:

• Hand washing
• Sneeze or cough into your sleeve
• Avoid touching your face
• Practice social distancing.

Measures organizations can take

• Cleaning: Consider increasing routine cleaning practices – if you are cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched surfaces once a day, move to twice a day using the products you already use.
• Space: Consider the density of your business and provide additional space for customers and employees to interact; for example, consider how line ups or seating could be expanded so that people are able to put some distance – 1 to 2 metres – between one another.
• Hand hygiene: Ensure your washrooms remain stocked with soap and consider offering hand sanitizer at entrances.
• Communication: Show your customers, clients, members, and employees what you are doing to support the efforts to slow transmission of this virus by communicating online and at your place of business.
• Employees who feel unwell: Support your employees to stay home if they are sick.

To protect those most vulnerable, and to make sure that our health system is able to care for those who become severely ill, we are asking people to self-monitor their health and to apply a low threshold when feeling unwell to stay home until they are better.

List of essential services in B.C. during the COVID-19 pandemic

Essential services are those daily services essential to preserving life, health, public safety and basic societal functioning. They are the services British Columbians rely on in their daily lives.

Developed by Emergency Management BC in consultation with other government ministries and the provincial health officer (PHO), this definition is intended to clarify what qualifies as an essential service in the context of the Province’s response to COVID-19.  In consultation with the PHO, these services should and are encouraged to remain open. They must, however, follow the orders and guidance provided by the PHO to ensure safe operations and reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19.

The PHO has ordered some types of businesses to close. Any business or service that has not been ordered to close, and is also not identified on the essential service list, may stay open if it can adapt its services and workplace to the orders and recommendations of the PHO.

Child care providers and schools providing care and/or in-class instruction for children are to prioritize placements for those children whose parents are employed as front-line workers in direct to public health and health services, social services, law enforcement, first responders and emergency response

For employees who are travelling

It’s recommended to avoid all non-essential travel outside of Canada, and that as of noon on March 13, 2020, those who do travel outside of Canada self-isolate at home for 14 days upon their return.

• 14-day self-isolation does NOT apply to service workers for whom travel outside the country is essential (e.g., cross-border trucking, airline crew, Clipper or Coho staff, film industry staff, or other people who work in BC and travel to the United States for work)
• All workers who travel to outside of the country for essential services noted above ARE required to self monitor daily.
• If a worker who has travelled out of country develops symptoms, they should self isolate and contact 8-1-1. If a worker develops symptoms while providing services they should immediately put on a mask and finish any essential services they are providing, then self isolate and call 8-1-1.