Minister of Health Adrian Dix says Wednesday’s numbers are “a concern” as 19 new COVID-19 cases were reported Wednesday.
There have now been a total of 2,775 cases in B.C.
None of the new cases are in Island Health. The Island Health region has had a total of 130 cases since the pandemic began. Of those, 125 have recovered and there have been five deaths.
There are 185 active cases of COVID-19 throughout the province and 2,422 people who tested positive have recovered.
Of the total COVID-19 cases, 11 people are hospitalized (no change from June 16), five of whom are in intensive care.
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 946 cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 1,438 in the Fraser Health region, 130 in the Island Health region, 196 in the Interior Health region and 65 in the Northern Health region.
There have been no new COVID-19 related deaths Wednesday. The death toll remains at 168.
There are also no new community outbreaks and the outbreak at the Oppenheimer Group produce distributor in Coquitlam has now been declared over.
Public health teams are still supporting the four ongoing community outbreaks.
However, there have been two new health-care facility outbreaks, at the Mission Memorial Hospital and Tabor Home in Abbotsford. The outbreak at Tabor Home and at the Maple Hill long-term care facility announced Tuesday are connected to the outbreak at Mission Memorial Hospital.
Today’s numbers are a concern. It’s a reminder for us to bend the curve, not the rules.
The health & safety of others depend on our actions, so let's con't to follow the rules that's been keeping us safe frm COVID-19:
Stay home when ill, wash hands &maintain physical distance.
— Adrian Dix (@adriandix) June 17, 2020
“These recent health-care outbreaks are very concerning and clearly demonstrate that COVID-19 remains in our communities,” Dr. Bonnie Henry, the provincial health officer, and Dix said in Wednesday’s statement about the latest COVID-19 numbers.
“Mission Memorial is a small hospital, which means services for the local community are now limited to urgent and emergency care only. Public health teams are working hard to contain further spread. While we are monitoring the situation closely, we are hopeful that we have caught these outbreaks in the early stages.”
Dix and Henry said this show once again that COVID-19 spreads quickly and can be transmitted to others even when someone is asymptomatic or has mild symptoms.
“One undetected case can quickly result in a surge in new cases,” Henry and Dix said.
“As we expect increased travel within our province over the summer months, this is a reminder that the impact on small communities with limited health-care resources can be severe.
“As a result, we ask British Columbians to continue to take all measures to ensure you are safely increasing your social interactions, you are being respectful of communities you may be visiting when on the road and that you are always, without question, staying home and staying away from others if you are even mildly ill.
“Closed spaces, close contact and crowds are higher risk, so anything that involves these things needs to be done with caution. This includes taking precautions to protect yourself and those around you by maintaining a safe physical distance and using a cloth face covering, if that is difficult.”
To see B.C.’s COVID-19 numbers by day and testing, visit the BC COVID-19 numbers.
Researchers with Johns Hopkins University and Medicine say the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases globally is more 8.2 million, with more than 446,000 deaths. The United States continues to have the highest number of cases and deaths, followed by Brazil.
Alexa Huffman
