WATCH LIVE: CBC Vancouver News at 6 for April 24 — COVID-19 & Q&A with Dr. Srinivas Murthy

you tonight on CBC Vancouver news if we can have some sort of rent reduction anything helps rent relief on the way for struggling small businesses hit hard by kovat 19 also I feel like they are treating my claim as if I am no fraud ster accused of stealing his own debit card a Vancouver teachers battle with TD Bank and coming to the rescue a Cova arab birthday surprise for a North Vancouver girl this is CBC Vancouver news good evening the death toll from kovat 19 is rising tonight in our province and there are more new cases but there is some encouraging news in the latest numbers on the virus we'll get to those in just a minute first some numbers being welcomed by small businesses hit hard by kovat 19 as tina love green reports the federal government is unveiling a new rent relief program at first glance you might just miss linda levees furniture shop it's hidden behind that colorful mural it's been closed and boarded up for I guess since the middle of March so what are we looking at six weeks now like many other businesses hit hard by COBIT 19 I mean we have not paid rent we we don't have funds to be paying all of that right now I mean as a super small business we don't have very large margins to start with but a glimmer of hope when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said some rent relief is on the way we've reached agreements with all provinces and territories to lower rent by 75% for small businesses that have been strongly affected by kovat 19 for April May and June the government will cover 50% of that reduction with a property owner covering the rest it would be amazing let's just hope that it's a straightforward as it should be because I know with a lot of programs that come out not all of us are eligible for them and that's the worry but on our list of concerns are those businesses that won't be eligible because they haven't lost 70% or more of their revenue but they're still struggling second big concern is landlords will they want to participate it is voluntary from the landlord side a tenant would oddly be interested in this program because they're only going to have to pay 25% of their rent for the months of April May and June but you know the tenant can't force a landlord to participate in the program but help is on the way in businesses like custom jewelry shop cavalier are trying to stay optimistic the revenue is a huge loss but I think the bounce back but subsidies aren't stainable over the long term and there are questions about how long they'll be available for are they willing to do it for a year if this continues to go on like that would be more of a question for government I think a lot of businesses are going to need that if you're telling them you can't be open or they can't operate in a full capacity legitimate worries about how long until shops can reopen and what sales will look like under the new normal Tina loves Green CBC News Vancouver fewer people are being hospitalized in BC because of kovat 19 but several more people have died CBC Vancouver News at 11:00 host Anne Burrell joins us live with more on the latest numbers damn like four more people have died in our province from coronavirus we've now lost 98 people in total so far we have 29 new cases and 96 are in hospital and that is a relatively steady drop 41 of them are in intensive care and of the 1853 people that have confirmed to have had the disease now more than 1100 of them have recovered of the new cases six are confirmed to be linked with the outbreak at the United poultry processing plant at Vancouver and there is still two confirmed cases at superior poultry processors in Coquitlam and Fraser health announced today that that plant has been shut down dr.

Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrienne Dix didn't hold a briefing today but they have stressed that as we either slump into another weekend that we keep ourselves clean and distant maintaining those so those physical distancing and washing our hands regularly and be critically critically important recognizing and staying home if we're ill and then connecting with us so we can get testing dr.

Henry will have another update on Kovac 19:00 tomorrow at 1:00 p.

m.

and we will have it for you on CBC News Mike all right Dan Barret reporting live tonight thanks and while dealing with the outbreak of kovat 19 isn't unique to BC it is starting to look like the results of our efforts are beyond flattening the curve BC is seeing fewer deaths per capita than similar jurisdictions our Justin McElroy has been crunching the numbers and he joins us now Justin what exactly are we seeing here yeah Mike when you compare British Columbia to virtually anywhere in North America or Western Europe it becomes all the more remarkable of just how well relatively the province has done in restricting this outbreak thus far so what we've done is we've looked at British Columbia compared to 39 other jurisdictions with at least 5 million people in Canada the States and Europe and as you see here at the very top of the list our states in the US like New York and New Jersey going down Quebec in the hundreds of deaths per million Ontario to still in the high dozens but at the very bottom of all these jurisdictions British Columbia just 20 every death right now of course mike is a tragedy and there's been far too many in British Columbia but when you see what's happened here compared to virtually everywhere else that is being densely affected over the last month what BC has been able to do looks at least at this point pretty remarkable and a big reason why the province is talking about next week maybe being when they might speak of loosening some restrictions all right we shall see about that thanks Justin Justin McElroy reporting tonight and perhaps those numbers and other things on tonight's newscast might raise some questions for you well you can send them to us right now because later in this newscast we'll be talking to infectious disease specialist dr.

Srinivas Murthy our lines are open 6o four six six to 6801 right now you can also email them to us at CBC News Vancouver 2 at cbc.

ca and if you're watching online post them in the comment section and we will put those questions your questions to dr.

Murthy OBC hydro is warning customers there's been a huge spike in scams since it announced help over the Cova crisis the electricity provider says scams are up 350 percent in April compared to March there were 500 reported incidents the fraudsters threatened disconnection for overdue accounts hydro says it will not disconnect accounts during the pandemic it warns customers to watch out for fake email bills and texts asking people to contact an 8 7 7 number to make payments and also warns about phishing scams offering a refund and advises clients contact the company directly if they have any questions and the province is announcing funding to improve rural Internet service to help people in rural remote and indigenous communities amid kovat 19 physical distancing it will also allow people to learn to work stay at home and remain connected to loved ones it will also give people better access to online health care and mental health supports at this time of self-isolation currently internet providers are seeing huge increased demand on their networks the 50 million dollar connecting british columbia program will help keep these service providers with immediate equipment upgrades to rapidly improve capacity and speeds in underserved communities providers can apply for grants of up to $50, 000 to cover the costs that relate to the performance or range of their network we are hearing more tonight from the family of the senior who was attacked in East Vancouver the 92 year old who has severe dementia was dragged and thrown out of a 7-eleven while being hurled Asian insults and comments about cope at 19 our Lee Ann Young has been speaking with his family and she has the latest the 92 year olds family tells me he was shaken and bruised but he's recovered now and they're thanking the public for their concern they are also taking a stand against xenophobia in a statement the quang family who are from East Vancouver says it has been hard warming to have so many kind words of concern shared and also to see the community band together to show they will not tolerate such treatment they raised the concern that xenophobia is on the rise and they hope that as a community we can stand together to protect the next person this may happen to last month a man shouted Asian slurs and comments about Kovan 19 at the Chinese senior he then dragged a 92 year old who has severe dementia of the door of a 7-eleven and threw him on the ground where he hit his head yesterday Vancouver Police said they identified a suspect but have not yet named him I've been speaking with two of the victims granddaughters they say the family wants to keep their grandfather's name private but they tell me he's called Canada home since the 1970s he's the patriarch of a large family with five kids eight grandkids and ten great-grandchildren the last two generations born here in Canada the hope is future generations won't ever experience what their great-grandfather did they wrap up their statement by thanking Vancouver police for their efforts and saying we can't control the fact that bad things are going to happen but it's how we react to them that really matters and they hope to see many more acts of kindness in the community Leon young CBC News Vancouver the province is issuing new orders to protect people working in the tree-planting sector the goal is to reduce the risk of contracting kovat 19 some of dr.

Bonnie Henry's orders call for screening of workers for symptoms or potential kovat 19 exposure as well as added hygiene measures and camps training workers on safety and limiting travel outside of camps every year about 5, 000 tree platters from across Canada work in remote camps and rural areas forests and tree planting are classified as essential services because their products go into making medical supplies like protective masks drapes and screens a Vancouver teacher has won a battle with the toronto-dominion bank after TD accused him of stealing his own debit card the bank has finally refunded him thousands of dollars drained from his account by the actual thief but only after CBC News got involved Erik Rankin of our CBC Vancouver impact team has the story so this is the mail room where my debit card was dropped off on April 10th the mailboxes in this Mount Pleasant apartment Lobby were ransacked by this person who got into the building around 8:30 a.

m.

and used a crowbar to pry open the facades of the boxes stealing the letters inside the thief methodically working his way along the wall undetected among the mail stolen a new TD Bank debit card just sent to 28 year-old Eric Prue he was pretty lucky to not just get pizza flyers before Peru even realized his new bank card was stolen the thief had somehow activated it and drained all $4, 300 Peru and his partner had saved to pay monthly mortgage on their new apartment Prue's girlfriend is laid off due to kovat Prue works remotely as a teacher but when Prue went to TD for help and even sent them this four and a half minutes surveillance video he says the bank blamed him saying he either gave his PIN to someone or he had faked the theft they start from the belief that you are guilty until proven innocent and that you need to prove to them that it wasn't you that stole your own card and stole your money for almost two weeks toronto-dominion denied Prue's claim he filed an appeal but just 20 hours after CBC News contacted the bank TD refunded prooves money officially refusing to comment on the case to protect the customers privacy simply noting the matter has been resolved the bank didn't refute proves belief that a temporary pin or validation code had been sent with the new debit card allowing the thief to activate it I think that if banks are willing to make it that easy to get him to someone's account that they should also be willing to you know compensate the victims of that system Prue says it just goes to show sometimes you need to raise a stink to get your money and you can take that advice to the bank Eric Rankin CBC News Vancouver and just a short time ago TD Bank sent us an update it now says a temporary pin is sent to customers in a separate envelope on a different day the bank says it's sorry peruse information was stolen and they regret the inconvenience TD says it's please the matter has been resolved through what it calls its escalation process [Music] state of emergency has been declared in quenelle and Williams Lake tonight because of flooding in Williams Lake several industrial properties along the River Valley have been ordered to evacuate no evacuation orders have been issued in quenelle however residents there are asked to stay away from Baker Creek because of the risk of flooding people in affected areas are being asked to prepare to leave at a moment's notice if necessary all right let's bring in meteorologist brett solder home now the the flood threat definitely real particularly in those areas because of a number of conditions brett yeah this weekend is particularly looking unsettled and not really cooperative when it comes to making those conditions even worse there's gonna be a big system that's gonna be encompassing all of BC this weekend bringing lots of rain to everywhere and while that rain is needed here in the south coast is absolutely not needed up into the caribou and the Chilcotin I want to show you this system that I was talking about and why it's a particular concern throughout Saturday we are expecting showers widespread from Prince George down to Williams Lake but the real issue here is the potential for thundershowers now in those you're gonna get locally higher rainfall amounts and that means all of that rain is gonna have to eventually be draining into the rivers and their tributaries while sunday is expected to be just a little bit drier there is still the potential here for anywhere between 5 to 15 millimeters of rain falling over the course of Saturday but it once again within those thunderstorms that could potentially reach 15 to 30 so in ideal conditions we wouldn't be wanting to have any rain in the region and we would like to see the cool temperatures now we are gonna see that through it Saturday and Sunday you can see Prince George there likely getting up to 9 degrees both days that's gonna help ease some of that rapid snowmelt that has been going on and leading to those largely hi river levels so it's a small little bit of silver lining however we're gonna need to watch very carefully to see how tomorrow plays out okay Brad thanks very much we will talk to you again in a little bit well for kids birthday parties aren't usually a pretty big deal a day to feel special with friends and family but how do you celebrate when a worldwide pandemic means no one can come over well that's where the district of north vancouver z' fire department comes in and as our deborah global reports tonight it started doing some birthday rescues he doesn't know what's happening exactly but it is his fifth birthday then again felix knows it's kind of a weird birthday this year when the kids woke up this morning the first thing he said is when are the people coming for my birthday and we had to have the conversation again about how nobody was coming just another thing the corona virus has taken away but rescuing people is a big part of what firefighters do so the district of north vancouver is here to help rescue Felix's big day and lots of friends from his townhouse complex have come outside to watch we're probably doing these days on average 10 to 12 of these on a daily basis like Felix it's all of his birthday – and I stretch my back out and I was like oh my I feel like 10 and everyone knows when you finally reached the double digits it's kind of a milestone she's been pretty bummed out right yeah because 10th birthday is a pretty big birthday so olives mom also arranged for a firetruck to rescue the day I think for anybody having a birthday these days it's definitely a crazy time I'm having a call video chat my friends so and have a call with my teacher I 1 o'clock today and so I'm probably gonna tell them all about that because sometimes you just have to make the best out of a lousy situation it was pretty cool to have a firetruck come just for your birthday especially for you so far the district of North Vancouver is the only fire hall doing birthday rescues in Metro Vancouver but they're also happening in Squamish on parts of the island and some cities in northern BC it's catching on right different communities have different needs and different capabilities but it's nice to live in a community that you can hypothetically get your arms around and support [Music] Debra Goebbels CBC News North Vancouver nice happy birthday olive happy birthday Felix and thanks to North fan district firefighters doing a great thing there for sure okay just a reminder you can watch this newscast live on CBC gem the free app also where you can find other CBC programs and cbc vancouver is also on facebook youtube and instagram a province in mourning nova scotia grieves over its dead as more details emerge of a deadly rampage yeah thanks for being with us online tonight for more news during the television commercial break while dozens of Canadian celebrities are taking part in an event this weekend that will pay tribute to the frontline workers fighting kovat 19 the stronger together concert will air Sunday night on many different platforms including CBC here is Deanna seminyak Johnson stronger together brings together the who's who of Canadian performers and entertainers everybody from Justin Bieber to Serge Ibaka from the rafters Ryan Reynolds Mike Meyers Sarah McLaughlin Celine Dion just some of the big names that you can catch on this unique benefit for Canada's food banks now what's also unique about stronger together is that it brought together Canada's broadcasters CBC CTV the chorus networks Rogers and dozens of other smaller stations will all be carrying the broadcast and really trying to help out the food banks Michael Buble is one of the notable performers here's what he had to say about why it was important to put this distinctly Canadian initiative here's what he had to say each of us on this this conversation is called we can't we have privilege you know we're we're lucky and it's because in many cases of what our country has given us and so I think it's our duty and our responsibility to do this I don't think that you get a cookie for being good Michael Buble they are reflecting on his privilege both as a Canadian and as a celebrity now of course stronger together is not the only celebrity led benefit during the corona virus pandemic just last weekend one world together at home managed to raise more than hundred and twenty-seven million dollars those were corporate donations this benefit will be asking regular Canadians to donate small sums of money five dollars ten dollars but the producer of the broadcast also answered my question and she said that they will make sure to let people know that if they cannot donate anything – just enjoy the show that there well aware that people are financially strapped themselves and that the event is yes about raising money for food banks Canada but really about bringing Canadians together and injecting a bit of joy and entertainment into these difficult times and people will be able to watch this unique entertainment event everywhere including on CBC television at 6:30 Eastern on Sunday that's seven o'clock in Newfoundland Deanna seminyak Johnson CBC News Toronto okay so for us here in BC stronger together well it'd be an early start 3:30 Pacific time it will also be strained live on the CBC gem app cbc.

ca and broadcast on CBC radio look forward to that okay don't forget coming up we've got dr.

Murphy coming on once again to answer any of your questions related to Cove at 19 he's an infectious disease expert and he is excellent at answering your questions so please do that back with more news in a second [Music] the RCMP and nova scotia revealed details today of the deadliest mass shooting in canadian history and what's clear is that on the night of Saturday April 18th in the small community of porta pick police were facing an overwhelming set of crimes kado council has details of the chain of violence it was a significant incident it was a significant assault and this individual female did manage to escape and that could very well have been the catalyst to start the chain of events that person was the shooters girlfriend police say she hid in the woods overnight they got that first report of a shooting at a home in the same area porta pick officers arrived on scene at 1026 Saturday evening and found a man who said he had been shot in his car by someone in a passing vehicle that looked like a police car I've been a police officer for almost 30 years now and I can't imagine any more horrific set of circumstances when you're trying to search for someone that looks like you that first scene was chaotic police found several bodies a total of 13 dead in porta pick there were already several buildings engulfed in flames police say they learned of a possible suspect fairly early and that his home garage and three vehicles were all on fire they also knew he had a pistol and long barreled weapons what I can tell you about the weapons is that at this point in time we've been able to trace one of those weapons back to Canada and the remaining weapons that have been recovered but it's believed that they were obtained in the United States all night the search for the suspect was fruitless then at 6:30 in the morning Gabriel workmen's girlfriend emerged from hiding and began providing critical information she told police he had a replica RCMP cruiser and was wearing a police uniform there's nothing like it like a human source or an eyewitness I mean they can tell you things you can ask them questions you can have a conversation with them more than 12 hours after that first call came in a second series of 9-1-1 calls the gunman shot and killed corrections officers Ilana Jenkins and Sean McLeod set their house on fire and also killed a passerby Tom Bagley then he encountered Lilly in his slump out for a walk and killed her too before continuing south to D Bert acting as an officer he pulled over Kristin beaten and Heather O'Brien and killed them meanwhile constables Heidi Stevenson and Chad Morrison used their police radios to arrange to meet near Shubin a kadhi when Morrison arrived he thought it was his colleague waiting for him in a police car but it was the gunman who immediately opened fire Stevenson was getting closer now her cruiser ended up colliding head-on with the gunman's he shot and killed her and took her gun and bullets Joey Weber was running an errand when he happened upon the scene Joey knew ahead of time what was going on and he joked Lee said to his girlfriend Shonda before he left – host I must go out and get to get the furnace oil and get back before that crazy guy gets down here shooting people but Webber became the next victim the gunman set Stevenson's vehicle and his own on fire and left in Weber's silver SUV but he had one more stop the home of Jeana Goulet he killed her and stole her car when he went to fuel it up at the Irving big stop by chance the police also happened to be there they shot and killed him ending a 13 hour manhunt nearly 100 kilometres from where it all began Kayla Huntsville CBC News Halifax and Nova Scotia RCMP are also saying that using that mock RCMP vehicle gave the killer an advantage over police and the public as Thomas degler explains people were in the dark about the disguise during a critical period by Sunday morning as the gunman drove along Highway 4 in the Wentworth area police across Nova Scotia were on alert for a fake RCMP cruiser the public was not out for a walk Lilly and his sloth would have had no reason to fear the police car that approached her or the man inside who shot her let people know to be safe how hard is that to do could it have saved your friend Lillian's life I'm sure it could police now acknowledge they learned the previous night in porta pick the suspect may be driving what looks like a police car but they found three registered Mountie styled Ford Tauruses on his properties one in Dartmouth intact the other two in Porter pick torched it became clear on Saturday night that the suspect may be driving a mock police car why wait 11 perhaps 12 hours to warn the public of that could not have saved lives you're asking me to to provide a crystal ball answer to the fact that there was this fourth unplayed vehicle didn't emerge until their early morning hours notice that car has no license plate police didn't realize he had a mock RCMP cruiser on the road until the gunman's girlfriend told them they alerted officers but waited roughly three hours to warn the public in a tweet no less you know you're finding bodies you're putting up fires you're assisting Fire Department ambulance they're bringing in additional resources sometimes it's just the communication gets stalled somewhere investigators have now found where the gunman obtained that light bar on the roof but not where the decals were printed his mock-up convincing enough for the shooter to pull over nurses Heather O'Brien and Kristen Beaton among the six victims killed as police knew about the car but kept it to themselves critical delay that may lead to more loss Thomas day whose CBC News Toronto now he is on the front lines of the kovat 19 pandemic both here at home and abroad as a World Health Organization advisor coming up we take your questions once again to dr.

Murthy give us a call 604 662 6801 email us at CBC News Vancouver at cbc.

ca you yeah thanks for staying with us during the second television commercial break for more news content okay when you hear the words house party or trivia night you usually think of social gatherings but they mean different things right now to those who are in their 20s they've found a way to keep their distance without disconnect and Stephanie Matisse they got a bad rap with stuff like this those huge parties the world was saying 20-somethings just don't understand kovat 19 and how they might pose a risk to others I thoroughly ignorant I think that is not the general population of my age group that are acting this way now they're the ones schooling the rest of us this is how to isolate like someone in their 20 [Music] this is my cousin Emily Craven a couple of months ago we were here and now we're here in the ever-so-popular Tiger King documentary what was doc antle's other name international trivia night with friends in England and Canada they're a substitute for a pub night but that's not all they're doing to pass the time I've been doing a Greek mythology course on Coursera I've been playing Psych with friends and we could have virtual wine nights or a virtual kind of happy hour with friends I've been doing online workouts I've been coloring of engineering puzzles this is house party so when someone's in the house or like online I'll get a notification saying like Queen is in the house Kyle is in the house and then I click and then join their party and then you can play different games speaking of parties Parker Christie wishes they were here instead love child social has shut down the weekend before the government said all businesses had to close because of the pandemic young people are very high risk of caring and young social people especially and you know with the end result being probably someone older being seriously hurt or even killed his company produced these PSAs instead I'm a socio-economic factor as well I think it's important for everyone rip the band-aid off now and choose to sell again in solidarity together to get back to some sense of normalcy as soon as possible it might not be their first choice to physically distance themselves from social circles but they're doing it for their own reasons my best friend is an oncology nurse so she's on the front line she's putting herself at risk for the population I just thought it was because you know this is the most basic form of altruism like all you have to do is stay home it's not like they're asking us to go to war or something the things that we've been doing to stay connected is a good example of how we can grow from this and become better friends and that's how to isolate like a twenty-something [Music] here are some of the stories we're following tonight on CBC Vancouver news Oh even if it's reduced by 75% that 25% might be a little bit complicated for us to come up with but we're all willing to do our part I mean we are willing to share the burden in this sum in this time the federal government is announcing a new aid program for struggling small businesses to help cover rent expenses Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the program will offer forgivable loans to qualifying commercial property owners the loans will be forgiven if the mortgaged property owner agrees to reduce the eligible tenants rent by at least 75 percent for April May and June they start from the belief that you are guilty until proven innocent and that you need to prove to them that it wasn't you that stole your own card a Vancouver teacher has won a battle with the toronto-dominion bank after TD accused him of stealing his own debit card the bank has finally refunded him thousands of dollars drained from his account by the actual thief but only after CBC News got involved you know we owe a lot to our frontline workers are kind of stepping up and working hard you know through all of this and I think this just makes it an extra special baby well happy 10th birthday all of Gilbert's a special and noisy surprise from district in North Vancouver firefighters delivering drive-by birthday wishes to kids let's go vat19 campers birthdays celebrations well on the day that US coronavirus death surpassed 50, 000 president Donald Trump is trying to walk back some of his treatment ideas that medical professionals are calling dangerous and horrifying Katie Simpson has more from Washington DC thank you very much we get with his allies backing him up the president used a familiar strategy to get out of his latest crisis Donald Trump shrugged off his comments I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen it absolutely did not seem like a joke went on live TV Trump top official to look at whether UV rays or disinfectant can be inserted into bodies as kovat 19 treatments is there way we can do something like that injection inside a doctor on trumps task force missed the apparent joke cringing as he went on the maker of Lysol sought necessary to put out a statement under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body so many people are listening to Trump's statements are not surprising to some who point out he's made dangerous claims before unfortunately the missteps the incompetence the denial of science have led to the United States having the worst epidemic worldwide Trump has encouraged anti stay at home protests which mostly have not followed physical distancing rules he also promoted an anti-malaria drug without facts to back his claims based on what I see a could be a game-changer the FDA says it's not a game-changer issuing a warning today about its potentially deadly side effects the top doctors on Trump's taskforce who bring credibility to the team did not go to his daily briefing he stuck mostly to his script uncharacteristically ignoring reporters bringing a fast end to his difficult day after Thursday's performance the White House is rethinking whether Trump needs to appear at these briefings Katie Simpson CBC News Washington obviously Trump's misinformation creating quite a stir so who better to get recommendations from than an actual doctor we're always happy to welcome back dr.

Srinivas Murthy to the program I'll remind you of his illustrious credentials infectious disease specialist at UBC AC Children's Hospital doctor also works with the World Health Organization dr.

Murthy thanks again for for joining us make let me ask you first of all not specifically about Trump's comments but about the whole idea of Lysol disinfectant being used as a treatment method can you respond on hopefully you don't need someone like me to come on the news to say my cell should not be used as a treatment inside the human body it's far too dangerous and silly to think about alright good oh let's we cleared that up thank you alright let's get to some questions we've got a lot already from our viewers this one on Facebook from – gowan Kenneth how likely is it that a vaccine is going to be developed we know that we're working on it but how likely is it the vaccine will be developed and and when so likeliness is very very high that a vaccine will be developed the question is when and the question is how effective it will be and lots of vaccines are being trialed right now and all around the world people are volunteering to be in these studies and hopefully one of these get proven to be effective there's some interesting data out of China just today about one of their vaccine candidates and so there's a lot of hope that the vaccine science is moving quickly but we still have to wait and see um timeline wise maybe later phase trials later in the summer ready to roll out in production later in early 2021 alright here's a question from Pete quilty on Facebook is there any evidence that having kovat 19 gives you immunity to future coronavirus reinfection versus wishing it does that is the most important question in the world right now and we really don't have a clear understanding of it yeah there's lots of controversies and discussions about what an immune test would be what the best immune test is and how many people would be immune in a community and so lots of studies are coming out now looking at different communities saying that there is 2% immunity or 1% of community or a 10% immunity and a lot of that's difficult to interpret because we don't know what the test actually is and we don't know what population was actually sampled but we're learning more and we don't know definitively whether that antibody will protect you from future infections the only time will tell well here's a good follow up question of that from Jeff asking it seems like health authorities are reluctant to start using antibody tests due to their high false positive rate and is that true and can we look forward to some other ways to get insight into what the rate of immunity might be here in BC yeah and like wait until we have a very good antibody test that's been validated and tested across different settings and we can't really recommend one to say you are immune and so you can expose yourself freely lots of other places are talking about things like immunity passports where if you've had an infection you can basically go wherever you want and go back to they working in a hospital without wearing protection we don't really have enough confidence in the science yet to say that you cannot be reinfected again it's very unlikely you can be but we don't say definitively you cannot and can you just how does the antibody testing how does it work sure so it just basically looks for an antibody in your blood and looks for a specific antibody that's specific to this coronavirus based on some of the markers on the surface of the virus the problem is they may be cross reactivity other coronaviruses and like all antibody tests it may not be a perfect test in general but it's getting better and I think as we sort of refine our testing capabilities we'll get to a place where we will be able to test to see if you have an antibody the question is does having that antibody prove you're protected and we haven't found that answer yet all right another question that's come in dr.

Murthy you've been watching this virus right from the beginning what has surprised you about it and it's spread yeah that's a good question I think it's spread is the thing that surprised people didn't list I think it's transmissibility from the early data and China things like the are not which was very widely discussed as a number of people that are infected from one person and in China we were discussing anywhere between two to two point five or three and then as you see it spread throughout Europe in the u.

s.

you see that number increased significantly to the reason forward so that for every one person who has disease three to four people get infected and that's a very high number for a respiratory infection in BC looking at the numbers now we've brought it down to around one which is because of all of our collective hard work which is a sign that we're doing the right thing and it just means we need to continue to do you'd expect we're getting a lot of good questions coming in tonight this one there has been or more research showing a link between mortality and pollution and it's your take on that connection yeah that's an interesting one and so you can think about baseline lung disease being higher in places where there's more pollution but also there's the what we call it confounder where there's another thing that links to the pollution in this setting if you live in a place with there's lots of pollution you may not live in as wealthy and environment and if that's the case you may be at more risk of getting the disease and I'm more risk of having severe disease and so I wouldn't necessarily link pollution directly to the problem of getting severe disease in mortality I would more link being around pollution and the things that's attached to that you're getting quite a few questions about the the easing of restrictions or a ways off but we saw Saskatchewan starting to go down that road a New Brunswick today talking about having sort of a two-family bubble situation where you could have heard about that so I mean what might it start to look like for us here people asking what might me we see initially yeah it's difficult to say exactly and I'm not going to comment on behalf of the Ministry of Health and how they're going to define that phased slow measured approach to things in British Columbia should be commended this far for how it's done in the phasing of its lockdown approaches going forward or going backwards from February to March and I'm sure that coming out of this will have a phased approach to them what will come first we'll see what's important to have is a firm infrastructure in the public health scene of being able to test people being able to trace them and being able to isolate them if you have those things fully capable and your hospitals and health system can cope with things you can start thinking about how to open things up and what gets opened up first whether it's you can go visit your neighbors or what the schools reopen what opens first and in what order I think that's a separate conversation all right here's an email that just came in from Carol asking how can we compare our stats with other countries with some countries and a number of US states only report hospital deaths ya know it's an it's a very good question and all sorts of places report things differently reporting by number of cases is just a matter of how many tests you do at the population level and so if you do less tests you'll have less cases and so you'll seem like you're doing better and so that's why we tend to report hospitalizations and hospitalized deaths as being a comparator across regions because you can't really sort of fake going to the hospital or even dying from the disease and so that's probably a more accurate metric across different places with different testing strategies than just the sheer number of cases all right this one from Barbara Alan Pollard on Facebook asking or saying I knew for people with pneumonia back in January could that open Cove at 19 and a friend had a mild stroke this month could that have been related to the virus yeah and lots of people around my neighborhood have asked me and texted me about whether they had a cold back in December or January they're probably immune right and I can't obviously we can't say definitively not but based on the what we have seen from the virus and where it's sort of progressed over the past few weeks it's unlikely that early January pneumonias were associated with the corona virus and so I would say that that was not fact if it was in March April and that would be a separate conversation okay here's an email from Peter asking of the over 1, 100 people who have recovered from kovat 19 how many have health issues if we can get a specific number on this but how many have health issues such as kidney or heart damage that was caused by the virus that's a great question and we're still sort of learning about the long-term effects of having a severe corona virus infection and in China for example there are some numbers of people who have subsequent lung disease and subsequent kidney disease from the acute problems in Canada it's still early and so our outbreak which was just surged about a month ago we're still learning about what's gonna happen long-term and there's lots of good research happening across the country about exactly that question all right well we got time for one more question let me let me ask you what you're anticipating in in the days ahead what what do you think we're gonna be seeing here in BC specifically I think we're gonna have little spikes here and there and I think watching our institutions very carefully obviously watching our meat processing plans is important watching our jails watching our long-term care facilities these are the places that most concerned about more so than community spread or household spread it's the places where people are forced to live and work close to each other without adequate protections and so really need to pay attention to those places as we sort of move to this next phase about break response when people are starting to talk about opening up but we really aren't ready yet all right once again great questions great answers tonight dr.

Murthy thank you once again so much for joining us we appreciate it enjoy the evening thank all right take care okay at 6:47 live shot looking up candy Street tonight bit of a dull day here in the Lower Mainland the weekend is here so is brat he's got forecast coming next you [Music] all right it's Friday least I think it is so that must be in the weekend is here Brett is here with the forecast some rather ominous looking clouds seem to be rolling in Brett you got that right it's almost like those clouds know what day tomorrow is because we are once again going back to our traditional rainy Saturdays here in Vancouver but I say that with just a little bit of lightness in my voice because believe me if you've been following along all week we still desperately need some rain down here and there will be plenty of that to come this weekend so I'm gonna walk you through what we can be expecting but let's start off by looking at how warm it is right now across the Lower Mainland 12 degrees at the airport where once again going further inland toward the Fraser Valley temperatures closer to about 16 degrees the interesting thing about our temperatures tonight is that they're not going to be changing all that much likely only going down to about nine degrees and we are going to be getting some showers that will change over to heavier rain by Saturday morning so by far that is going to be sort of I guess the heaviest period of rain you could expect all weekend that'll taper over into showers come Saturday lasting throughout much of Sunday just kind of add spotty showers here and there and definitely some clouds now in terms of the amounts here these are significant simply for the fact that we haven't seen this amount yet all month we are looking at a widespread 15 to 30 millimeters for pretty well everyone in the Lower Mainland and of course at higher elevation and especially up toward the seat of sky including Squamish this could be in the territory of about 30 to 50 millimeters now I mentioned a little bit earlier where this is all coming from we have two separate systems this weekend that are going to be bringing a lot of rain to the entire province and you can see again that spiraling sort of nature that you're looking at right by Haida Gwaii these are gonna be some strong winds for that region potentially up to 90 kilometres an hour tomorrow now throughout Saturday it is gonna be showery come Sunday it's gonna be a little bit more localized but Sunday overnight into Monday that's when we're getting to get into another round of some much-needed rain now in terms of our temperatures for this weekend all the way across the southern half of BC we are gonna be a lot cooler than we have been in previous weekends and that just kind of makes sense given sort of the cloud cover and as well the amount of rain that is in our forecast but once again these are fairly close to seasonal temperatures so nothing two unusual at this point in time with our five-day forecast these unsettled conditions are going to be continuing right into next week and you can see that really only at about Tuesday is when we're looking at a chance for some of that Sun to be returning now I want to emphasize it's not going to be a washout weekend by any means but definitely be prepared for more rain than anything else than we've seen throughout this entire month well the flooding aside we do need that rain so look forward to it I think all right thanks Brett I'll Cova nineteen is no laughing matter but in this time of physical distancing one boys goal to prove the point that laughter is the best medicine that story next you this is a call out to any Junior scavenger hunters CBC Vancouver's digital scavenger hunt is taking place April 27th until May 1st kids of all ages can take part in the scavenger hunt from home participate every day for more chances to win a limited edition CBC Vancouver backpack full of prizes plus you could score an invite to an exclusive online concert with will stroke from wills jams for more info head to cbc.

ca slash scavenger hunt well during a pandemic a lemonade stand may not be a winning idea but six-year-old Callahan McLaughlin has a new and different tonic in mind a free walk by drive-by joke stand and during these times like these smiles he helps deliver might just deliver more satisfaction than a glass of juice there's a lot of stress in the world and they kind of want to get some smiles on people's faces because of coronavirus but the pirate's favorite letter so it makes me feel good when I can do a little social distancing joke with them what they did I say to the neck [Music] callaghan's a fairly social child and he was starting to miss having interactions with some of the neighborhood kids and some of our neighbors in the community so I came up with the idea of the joke stand because this is also a child who walks around our house telling us jokes well done Kelly I love it love it love it love it I used to see about doing that while maintaining the physical distancing as well I'll just a reminder you can always find this newscast online the cbc.

ca slash you see our next local news is with Dan Barret at 11 o'clock right after the national we're gonna leave you now with the afternoon view from ask why malt Lagoon have a great weekend good night [Music] [Music] [Music].