Some drive-in graduation ceremonies planned as an alternative to traditional celebrations amid COVID-19 are now up in the air because of new restrictions on the number of vehicles allowed.

On Friday, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry amended a provincial order limiting gatherings to 50 people to also limit drive-in events to 50 vehicles.

Tracy Arrowsmith, who sits on her daughter's school's grad committee in Prince George, was devastated when she heard the news.

"I was very surprised and disheartened and I'm not going to lie, I had a cry," she said.

"Honestly, it didn't make any sense to me, because there's always more than 50 cars at Walmart, at Save On, at Costco and people milling around. I didn't see how it made any difference to have students and their families in their cars at the drive-in watching the movie."

Her group had made arrangements to host a watch party of the Duchess Park Secondary ceremony at the local drive-in theatre on June 24.

During Monday's daily COVID-19 briefting, Henry said the restriction could be revisited later this summer, but for now, they're sticking with a 50 car limit. She said large numbers of people gathering together are challenging right now.

"The more people we have, the greater the chance the virus can spread. We [also] need to think about the people who work at the facility," she said, adding that the more people there are, the more difficult contact tracing becomes.

"We need to be more cautious. We do not want to go back to where we were and lose the efforts we have already made."

In Enderby, A.L. Fortune Seconary's grad plans have also taken a turn — their plans were similar to those in Prince George.

"It's frustrating for us. We've put a lot of work and planning into the event, and of course it's not ideal," principal Scott Anderson told Radio West host Sarah Penton.

"We had our hopes up that we were going to be able to do this."

The local drive-in movie theatre has cancelled all graduation events, even though the Enderby school only has 36 graduates and would likely come in under the 50 car limit.

Anderson said the school will go ahead with plans to have students cross a stage, and a video production company will provide families with a copy of a video they'll put together for the students.

In Cranbrook, however, teachers, parents and administrators are scrambling to plan a graduation ceremony that adheres to the latest restrictions, after the drive-in ceremony for Mount Baker Secondary were cancelled just hours after the plans were sent to students.

"There will be some form of ceremony. We just do not know what it's going to look like," said parent Jason Wheeldon.

Representatives of that class have sent a letter to the provincial health officer and ministers of health and education asking for clarification of the vehicle limitations

"I think we all want to make sure that we are adhering the guidelines," Wheeldon said. "We just want to be able to have some clear direction on what we can and cannot do."

Arrowsmith and her grad committee have also made other arrangements, including a drive-by parade and setting up photos of the graduate class near the high school. They've even found someone who has a drone that is going to try to take physically distanced photos of the graduates to put together some sort of graduation photo.

Even so, Arrowsmith says she's hopeful that the province will reconsider the restriction.