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While BC continues to roll out the first dose of vaccine to its people, gathering & travel restrictions and mask mandates across the United States are starting to lift. Sporting events are seeing thousands return to the stands, and indoor masking is becoming less common.

The latest state to open up is Pennsylvania. On Tuesday, the Pittsburgh Penguins played a playoff game in front of a crowd of nine-thousand people, something that feels like a distant dream to Canadians. Chad Schies, a Pennsylvania local and social studies / political science student is loving his first week of returning to normal living.

“Its been pretty good, the only remnants of it are just what we hear in the media from other areas. Some people wear masks, but a lot of the people now just don’t, and we just kind of go about business like normal. It’s cool.”

Pennsylvania has a population just under 13-million. In that population, five million people have been fully vaccinated, and another five million have one dose. We get closer to these freedoms with every Canadian who receives their vaccine. The BC government is now allowing those born in 2001 and later sign up for their first dose, if you have not done this yet you can sign up here in under five minutes.