While B.C.’s COVID-19 restrictions are set to expire in two weeks, don’t go planning that large Family Day, Chinese New Year, or Super Bowl Sunday gathering just yet.

Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry says a further extension or easing of restrictions will depend on the situation between now and Feb. 5.

“The extension of the measures that were put in place were designed for two incubation periods,” she said. “So we need to look at what is happening, look at where we are with our immunization program, look at where we are with our daily case numbers and where we are seeing transmission events in our communities.”

Right now, Henry says the situation in Interior and Northern Health is concerning, noting health officials are keeping a close eye on things.

According to the BC Centre for Disease Control, during the week of Jan. 10 to 16, there were 97 cases in the Kamloops local health area, which also includes Chase, the north Shuswap, Sun Peaks, Barriere, Little Fort, Logan Lake, Tobiano, and Savona.

Henry is urging people to stay committed in the fight against COVID-19 – including physical distancing, limiting social gatherings, and regular hand washing.

“We have a number of things that we’ll be looking at coming up,” she added.

“Hopefully, if we start to continue on this trajectory of decreasing community transmission and increased protection in our care homes, we might have some ability to loosen some of the restrictions, but so much depends on everything that we do.”

As of Thursday afternoon, there have been 98,125 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine administered in the province, of which 14,211 have been in Interior Health.