British Columbia’s top doctor has ended the COVID-19 public health emergency, which began nearly 1,600 days ago on March 17, 2020.

Declaring COVID-19 a public health emergency gave provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry the ability to issue mask mandates, travel and gathering restrictions and vaccination requirements for health-care workers to curb the spread of the virus.

While experts The Tyee spoke with agree the public health emergency may no longer be needed, they stressed that COVID-19 still poses a serious and potentially deadly threat to the general public.

“COVID is still a major, ongoing health issue and crisis,” said Tara Moriarty, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, an infectious disease expert and co-founder of the COVID-19 Resources Canada database.