There are now 2,112 cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in B.C., after health officials announced 25 new cases Thursday.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry reports that there are 815 cases in Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), 961 in Fraser Health, 120 on Vancouver Island, 170 in Interior Health and 46 in Northern Health.
There are no new outbreaks in long-term care facilities. Currently, there are 24 active outbreaks in long-term facilities and three acute care unit outbreaks in the Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health regions, with 256 residents affected and 153 staff. Outbreaks are declared over at 12 care facilities.
The outbreak at the Mission federal correctional institute in the Fraser Valley has continued to grow. The number of positive COVID-19 is 120. An investigation is going and the health authority expects more people may develop symptoms in the coming days and weeks.
50 people have tested positive in the ongoing outbreak at Superior Poultry, a chicken processing plant in Coquitlam. The number of positive cases related to the initial outbreak announced earlier this week at United Poultry Company Ltd., a Vancouver processing plant, has remained steady at 42. Investigations are ongoing at both plants.
Eleven cases connected to the Kearl Lake project in Alberta, have been confirmed to date, Henry added. However, she notes that there are several hundred people associated with the project, and that anyone who has been in the project since March 24 needs to self-isolate. In addition, she mentions that the health authority has been given a list of names of individuals connected to the facility that they are contacting.
There have been an additional two deaths, for a total of 111 fatalities in the province. One death was a senior in long-term care facilities and the other individual passed away in hospital.
There are currently 82 people in acute care in hospital and 30 are in critical care.
1,322 people have fully recovered and are no longer in isolation.
The provincial COVID-19 testing strategy continues to evolve, and Henry underscores that testing is available to anyone who has symptoms, "including even very mild symptoms." With this in mind, she adds that random testing of anyone in the community who shows little to no symptoms leads to false negative and false positive results.
Henry adds that it has been 100 days since the health authority issued its first statement about a 'novel coronavirus' and the possibility of an outbreak in B.C.
"We need to continue to be caring and compassionate, to our friends, our neighbours and our community. To show the appreciation for the countless British Columbians who are protecting us, whether they are health care workers or grocery workers," Henry says.
"And we need to continue to do all of this by being calm, being kind, and staying safe."
Yesterday, Henry remarked that over 900 temporary workers came into B.C. over the last few weeks. She stated that additional measures are being offered to help support them. Government measures include medical support, social support and accommodation so that individuals may effectively quarantine.
Earlier this week, Henry stated that despite a number of community outbreaks, the decrease in cases is clear evidence that the sustained efforts to follow public health measures has slowed the rate of transmission of COVID-19.
"In addition, our increased surveillance testing has led us to find people in our community who are positive for COVID-19 and the vast majority of them are linked to outbreaks now, which is an important thing for us to understand so that we know where transmission is happening in our community," Henry said.
Henry also noted that the province will provide the latest COVID-19 modeling on Monday, as well as the latest details on the epidemiology regarding who has been affected in B.C.
