British Columbian health officials announced Thursday that there have been 20 new cases of COVID-19 in the province over the last 24 hours.
The provincial total now sits at 3,028 COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the health crisis.
During a press release from Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix on Thursday, the duo said that there were no new cases in the Island Health region, meaning the total of cases remains at 133.
Of all the cases in the Island Health region, three are currently active, 125 have recovered and there have been a total of five deaths.
During Thursday’s update, Dr. Henry and Minister Dix said there had been no more deaths in British Columbia as a result of the coronavirus, keeping the total at 186.
Health officials will be altering their method of case reporting moving forward by pulling out the people who have tested positive here in BC but are residents of another country. These are mostly visitors who became ill while on BC soil as well as temporary foreign workers. Dr. Henry adds by doing this, it helps officials understand the impact of travel on the spread of COVID-19.
Factoring the changes in, there have now been 1,596 confirmed cases in the Fraser Health region 1,018 cases in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 201 in the Interior Health region, 133 in the Island Health region, 65 in the Northern Health region and 51 cases from people whose residence is outside of Canada.
The number of active cases now sits at 175, making a jump of 13 from Wednesday.
There are 17 people who are currently in hospital as a result of the virus and four are in intensive care.
Dr. Henry said there are no new healthcare facility outbreaks, however, two long-term care facilities and one acute care facility are still dealing with active outbreaks.
“I know some people may be thinking this is all over and that they can relax and go back to normal,” said Dr. Henry. “But until effective treatment or a vaccine is available we know that this virus is going to circulate in our communities.”
Dr. Henry continues to urge British Columbians to follow safety precautions, wary of COVID-19’s ability to resurge.
“We’ve seen elsewhere around the world, including the United States and other places, that things can quickly escalate once again if we let our guard down,” the provincial health officer said.
“We need to keep the virus low and slow.”
According to BC health experts, 2,667 people have fully recovered from COVID-19.
Researchers with Johns Hopkins Univerity and Medicine say the number of known COVID-19 cases is now more than 12.1 million with more than 552,000 deaths.
Graham Cox
