Vancouver is suffocating. The thick acrid smoke from the wildfires of California and Oregon, in the United States, suffocates the inhabitants of the metropolis of western Canada planted in a postcard setting and usually bathed in a pleasant ocean breeze.
Nestled between sea and mountains 40 km north of the United States, the city posted Friday, September 18 the worst air quality on the planet, ahead of Portland in the US state of Oregon, according to the specialized site World Air Quality Index. A situation that complicates testing for the coronavirus, according to public health services.
“I have the impression that my chest is exploding, that I will suffocate. I’m afraid of the long-term damage this smoke could cause to my lungs ”, said Fatima Jaffer, a 58-year-old doctoral student from the University of British Columbia. “I had just overcome the fear of Covid-19 and I felt like I could breathe again (…) but now I literally can’t”, she says. She now fears the worsening of her asthma problems.
It was a “Terrible week for air quality”, confirms Armel Castellan, meteorologist specializing in the preparation of alerts to the population. Faced with the situation, the authorities called on citizens to close their windows, avoid any vigorous physical exercise and opened five shelters for some 2,000 homeless in this metropolis of 2.5 million inhabitants.
Smoke and Covid-19
People with asthma or the homeless are most at risk of smoke inhalation and the new coronavirus, said provincial public health official Bonnie Henry.
British Columbia is currently seeing a record number of new coronavirus cases, worse than in the spring.
“For many of us there is confusion between the symptoms caused by a smoky sky and those caused by Covid-19, especially for people who have an underlying lung disease, asthma, illness heart and diabetes’Ms Henry said at a press conference.
The situation of the homeless, many of whom already suffer from chronic illnesses, according to a study, is of particular concern. “If you are outside and homeless, and surrounded by this smoke and the pandemic, there is not much you can do to escape it”, says a shelter manager, Jeremy Hunka, stressing the great vulnerability of these people.
Armel Castellan fortunately anticipates an improvement in air quality for the next week with storms forming in the Pacific Ocean. But with the signs of climate change, clearly visible with the worsening forest fires year after year, “We are not at the end of our troubles”, he laments.
