B.C. health officials said Wednesday there are nine new cases of COVID-19 in the province, as well as one additional death.
There have now been 2,550 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in B.C. and 162 deaths. The latest death was in the Fraser Health region.
Of the confirmed cases, 2,144 people have recovered and there are 244 active cases. Thirty-seven people with COVID-19 are in hospital, with seven in intensive care. There have been no changes in hospitalizations from May 26.
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 899 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 1,267 in the Fraser Health region, 127 in the Island Health region (no change from May 26), 194 in the Interior Health region and 63 in the Northern Health region.
There are no new health-care outbreaks. Fourteen long-term care or assisted living facilities and one acute care unit have outbreaks.
Dr. Bonnie Henry and B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix provided Wednesday’s numbers in a statement. Earlier Wednesday, Dix appeared with Premier John Horgan, who announced an extension to B.C.’s state of emergency. The province is now in its longest provincial state of emergency in its history, according to Horgan.
Henry and Dix wrote they are encouraged by what they are seeing so far as B.C. continues with Phase 2 of its restart plan.
“COVID-19 has a two-week incubation period, which means any new cases that are a result of the easing of restrictions will start to appear over the coming week,” Henry and Dix said.
“With this in mind, let’s continue to take advantage of parks and other activities closer to home, and look to increase social interactions only after fully considering the risks to you and your family. Once we have a good understanding of how we are doing in mid-June, we’ll have the data we need to determine our timing for further actions.
“This slow and thoughtful approach is our ‘new normal.’ It is grounded in what we know about COVID-19 today and will continue to be adapted as we learn more in the weeks and months ahead.”
For a full breakdown of B.C. COVID-19 cases by day and health authority, visit the B.C. COVID-19 dashboard.
According to researchers with Johns Hopkins University and Medicine, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide is more than 5.6 million, with more than 353,000 deaths.
Alexa Huffman
