“We need to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our province and that needs to happen now”

DR. Bonnie Henry, Provincial Health Officer, and Adrian Dix, Minister of Health, on Monday announced 941 new cases of COVID-19, which bring the total number of cases to 28,348 in British Columbia.

There have been 10 new COVID-19-related deaths, and the total number of deaths now stand at 358 deaths in the province.

There are 7,732 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. There are 284 individuals currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 61 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.

Currently, 10,283 people are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases and 19,605 people who tested positive have recovered.

There have been 174 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 678 in the Fraser Health region, 11 in the Island Health region, 49 in the Interior Health region, 29 in the Northern Health region and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

There are two new health-care facility outbreaks at Valley Haven Care Home and Little Mountain Place. The outbreak at Fraserview Intermediate Care Lodge has been declared over. There have been no new community outbreaks.

Henry and Dix said: “B.C.’s health-care workers are in our labs and hospitals, at our testing sites and in our communities. These people are our health-care system. They are there to support all of us without question and without pause, and we need to show that same support to them by all of us doing our part.

“We need to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our province and that needs to happen now. That is why we have paused all gatherings, events and indoor group fitness activities.

“That is also why everyone, young and old, needs to pause their social interactions and increase their layers of protection and stay within their local communities as much as possible.

“We need to ease the pressure to allow us to get over this next hurdle, and importantly, give us the ability to once again enjoy those things that are important to all of us.

“Let’s remember that every case of COVID-19 is a person who requires support and care, who may become severely ill and need to be in hospital, and whose family will experience the stress, emotional burden and for some, the tragedy, that has come with this virus.

“Let’s step up our efforts to protect our families, friends and neighbours. The time to do that is now.”