HEALTH Minister Adrian Dix and Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry on Thursday announced 89 new cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), including one epi-linked case, for a total of 6,041 cases in British Columbia.

Sadly, there was one new COVID-19-related death; the total number of deaths now stands at 210 in the province.

There are 1,1175 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, 2,801 people who are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases, and 4,644 people who tested positive have recovered.

Currently, 34 individuals are hospitalized with COVID-19, 11 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 2,012 cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 3,155 in the Fraser Health region, 178 in the Island Health region, 450 in the Interior Health region, 167 in the Northern Health region and 79 cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

There have been two new long-term care facility outbreaks at Cherington Place in the Fraser Health region and at Point Grey Private Hospital in the Vancouver Coastal Health region. The outbreak at the Maple Ridge Seniors Village has been declared over. In total, nine 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: “With COVID-19 in our province, we have continued to adapt our approach as we learn more about the virus and what we need to do to protect ourselves and those around us.

“Today, we shared the latest modelling data. The data shows us that although we have been able to find our balance – keeping essential services and businesses going, while protecting our most vulnerable, we continue to have new cases and new clusters across the province.

“We know COVID-19 is going to be in our communities for many months ahead, so our focus needs to be on keeping our communities vibrant and healthy, and keeping new cases low by breaking the chain of transmission.

“Our well-being includes getting back to work, getting back into classrooms, keeping our businesses going and staying healthy.

“We simply have to look at the successes we have seen in recent months to show us what we need to do. Thousands of our restaurants have reopened, millions of trees have been planted this summer and many people have safely restarted recreational sports once again.

“However, as we look to the fall, now is the time to pause the activities that we know are a high risk to all of us – spending time with groups of people we don’t know without taking personal precautions.

“Now is also the time to think about the number of contacts you have. There is no ‘safe’ number, but fewer people is better. If you know you have more interactions ahead – for example, if you are returning to work – then it is a good idea to reduce your time with other contacts.

“This upcoming long weekend, choose to go small, to spend time with your household bubble instead of a group of strangers, and choose to use the layers of protection, wherever you may go.

“We have the tools and we can make the right choices. To be successful in this next phase, we need to step back to safely move forward, so let’s all make that choices that will keep our communities, our Elders, our loved ones and ourselves safe.”

Assisted living, long-term care homes and seniors’ rental buildings with ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks are as follows:
Vancouver Coastal Health:
* Point Grey Private Hospital long-term care facility

Fraser Health:
* Bear Creek Villa independent-living facility

* Cherington Place long-term care facility

* Czorny Alzheimer Centre long-term care facility

* Derby Manor independent-living facility

* George Derby Centre long-term care facility

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

* New Vista Care Home long-term care facility

* Normanna long-term care facility