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Andrew Longhurst, a doctoral student in the Department of Geography and a health policy researcher, told CBC News that if some cases are not travel-related, it suggests COVID-19 variants could be spreading in the community unchecked — a situation he says should be addressed urgently.

"I'm quite unclear as to why we're not taking more urgent action and why the discovery of new cases of these variants are not being communicated clearly or directly," he said.

Longhurst said health officials should be candid about the fact that the current plan to rollout vaccines doesn't mean the province won't experience high numbers of cases throughout the spring if more infectious variants begin spreading widely in the community.

"I'm optimistic about the vaccine rollout — but the bottom line is the timeline of the vaccinations doesn't line up with the emergence of the variants and how rapidly they're likely to spread in communities," he said.

"You only have to look at the news from other jurisdictions to know what is likely to happen if these variants take hold," said Longhurst. "I'm quite alarmed and I think we have a chance of having a very challenging spring ahead of us."

Longhurst said B.C. should consider moving to a system used by jurisdictions that have more successfully contained the virus, citing the example of Australia, where international travellers are quarantined in a hotel and regularly tested, including for variants.

"It is so critical right now that we act urgently and at least do the low hanging fruit that, if we are going to allow uncontrolled travel nationally and internationally, we have to move to a system of managed quarantine," he said.

"We're kind of in the 11th hour now. We know that the self-isolation protocols that we're using in central and western provinces is too leaky."

See the full CBC News story here: