Dr. Bonnie Henry announced a new public health order on Thursday.
The new measure will permit WorkSafeBC inspectors to shut down a business for at least 10 days if three or more employees contract COVID-19.
"When three or more workers have COVID-19 at a workplace, that's determined by public health to be transmission in that workplace," said Henry.
"We have an outbreak protocol that includes testing, that includes investigation of how transmission might happen."
Depending on the situation, this type of shutdown may only involve one particular location or team.
Using the example of a construction site, Henry said there may be cases where just one team on site needs to be off for a period of time.
However, the new public health measure doesn't apply to emergency services such as police, fire and health care.
"We recognize, of course, there are many workplaces that cannot be closed… those will be under the guidance of public health as well," said Henry.
"But we now have some extra resources to help support those workplaces when we have workplace transmission and worker safety is at risk."
BC announced its highest ever single day total for COVID-19 cases, reported 1,293 recorded cases in the past 24-hours.
