Dr. Bonnie Henry, the provincial health officer, said Tuesday there are eight new cases of COVID-19 in British Columbia. None of the new cases are in Island Health.
This is the first time since early March that the province has reported fewer than 10 new cases of COVID-19, according to the BC Centre for Disease Control.
B.C. reported five new cases of COVID-19 on March 9. Since then, the number of cases per day has been 10 or higher.
The last day of zero cases in Island Health was April 30.
There have now been 2,232 test positive cases in B.C., with 849 in Vancouver Coastal Health, 1,031 in Fraser Health, 124 in Island Health, 177 in Interior Health and 51 in Northern Health.
There have also been four additional deaths, bringing the death toll to 121. A total of 1,472 people have recovered as of May 5.
“We have put the brakes on it for sure…but we have not yet stopped this train,” Henry said. “There’s a long way to go for all of us both here in B.C., in Canada and around the world.”
Of the cases in Island Health, 105 have recovered and three are in hospital. There have been four deaths overall.
There are currently 22 active outbreaks, including a new outbreak at a long-term care facility, Evergreen House, in Vancouver Coastal Health. There are also two new acute care outbreaks: one at Ridge Meadows Hospital in Maple Ridge and another at Richmond Hospital.
Seventeen outbreaks have been declared over, including the first long-term care outbreak in the Lynn Valley Care Centre.
There continue to be community outbreaks at: Fraser Valley Specialty Poultry with seven cases, Superior Poultry in Coquitlam with 55 cases and United Poultry in Vancouver with 35 cases.
Henry said it’s not the time to start planning playdates or expanding social bubbles.
“Moving too quickly can undo all the work we have done,” Henry said.
“Few spaces and big spaces are what we need to think about.”
On Monday, B.C. health officials released the latest modelling for COVID-19 in the province. Premier John Horgan is scheduled to outline B.C.’s plans to begin reopening parts of the economy on Wednesday.
According to researchers with Johns Hopkins University and Medicine, the number of COVID-19 cases globally is more than 3.6 million with more than 255,000 deaths.
In Canada, there have been more than 4,000 coronavirus deaths and more than 62,000 confirmed cases of the disease in every province and territory except Nunavut.
Canada’s chief public health officer says the daily increase of COVID-19 cases in Canada has slowed to about three per cent.
Dr. Theresa Tam says that trend, coupled with statistics showing the percentage of tests coming back positive is going down, even as the number of tests goes up, signifies that the epidemic in Canada is slowing down.
Meanwhile, Tam says the pediatric network in Canada is monitoring children for signs of the inflammatory syndrome known as Kawasaki disease, which some countries have found in some children with COVID-19.
But Tam says there are no firm conclusions in Canada about the links between COVID-19 and inflammatory diseases.
For more information about COVID-19 symptoms, visit the BC Centre for Disease Control website.
With files from CBC and The Canadian Press
Watch Dr. Bonnie Henry and Adrian Dix on May 5, 2020 below:
Alexa Huffman
