HEALTH Minister Adrian Dix and Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry on Wednesday announced 104 new cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), including six epi-linked cases, for a total of 5,952 cases in British Columbia

Fortunately, there was no new COVID-19-related death; the total number of deaths remains at 209 in the province.

There are 1,127 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, 2,786 people who are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases, and 4,605 people who tested positive have recovered.

Currently, 33 individuals are hospitalized with COVID-19, 14 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation.

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 1,974 cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 3,112 in the Fraser Health region, 178 in the Island Health region, 445 in the Interior Health region, 164 in the Northern Health region and 79 cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

There has been one new health-care facility outbreak at Surrey Memorial Hospital and the outbreak at Langley Memorial Hospital has been declared over. In total, eight long-term care or assisted-living facilities and two acute-care facilities have active outbreaks.

There have been no new community outbreaks, although there continue to be community exposure events.

Alerts are posted on the BC Centre for Disease Control’s (BCCDC) website, as well as on health authorities’ websites, providing details on where the potential exposure occurred and what actions to take – whether you need to self-isolate or monitor for symptoms.

Dix and Henry added: “Getting back to work and back to school is also about getting back to the basics with our COVID-19 safety measures.

“We need to redouble our efforts to ensure our layers of protection are always part of our daily routines – for everyone in our family. This will allow us to push our curve down once again.

“Take some time to think about your personal circumstances and those of your family. Who may be vulnerable to severe illness and what are you doing to protect them? With each of us doing our part, we can protect our communities, our elders and our loved ones.

“Let’s choose to keep our groups small. Let’s choose to be the person that stays home when we are ill and let’s choose to be safe each and every day while COVID-19 remains in our communities.”

Assisted living, long-term care homes and seniors’ rental buildings with ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks are as follows:
Fraser Health:
* Bear Creek Villa independent-living facility

* Czorny Alzheimer Centre long-term care facility

* Derby Manor independent-living facility

* George Derby Centre long-term care facility

* Maple Ridge Seniors Village assisted-living facility

* MSA Manor long-term care facility (second outbreak)

* New Vista Care Home long-term care facility

* Normanna long-term care facility