It’s no secret that many people who can are choosing to stay home as much as possible right now. But it looks like an unexpected result of that could be a massive overstock of oil, to the point where the price per barrel may drop below $0.00. It’s hard to believe, but you can read up on it more here.
The government of Canada recently announced that there will be a $300 monthly aid available for people in disability or income assistance. This comes after weeks of reports that people in these situations are finding it almost impossible to survive, due to issues with price inflation and hoarding of some type of groceries and supplies. More info can be found here.
We are at a point now where we can say with a level of confidence that BC has successfully flattened the curve with COVID-19. This doesn’t mean we’ve beaten it, or even are anywhere near beating it. What it does mean though is that our number of known active cases has stayed relatively steady, and our hospitals are not becoming overwhelmed to the point of having to make difficult decisions of who gets treated and who doesn’t. This is great news! But we must still physically distance and stay home as much as possible.
Today 3M announced that Trump has ordered them to not ship any N95 masks to Canada (we have standing orders in process). Both 3M and Trudeau have been fighting back against this order, and it remains to be seen what will happen. But on the bright side, in the last two days, over 5,000 masks were recovered from illegal profiteers here in BC, and will be distributed to the hospitals that need them. If you ever see anyone trying to resell N95 masks, please forward the lead on to the appropriate authorities.
In the good news department, it looks like we may soon have access to at home COVID-19 testing kits. A medical company in Winnipeg has been selling them to the USA already, and assuming they pass approval for sales in Canada, should be available to us hopefully soon. These tests process small blood samples and look for the antibodies produced by the body when fighting or having beaten COVID-19. So it will let you know if you have it, or had it previously. Keep an eye on www.safecarecanada.com for when the units become available in Canada.
Speaking for my own situation, I’m still working on getting my own financial relief set up. I’ve been running into difficulties getting my ROE details from the Canadian Services website. The ROE was digitally submitted by my employer, and it’s showing up, but every time I try to access it the session times out. It’s been very frustrating, but I’m going to keep at it.
Stay safe everyone!
BC COVID-19 Info 