BC reports no new coronavirus deaths for first time in nearly two weeks
There are 43 new test-positive COVID-19 cases in BC, bringing the total recorded cases to 1,618 in the province, health officials announced Friday.
For the first time in nearly two weeks, no new deaths were reported.
While no press conference was held today, BC Minister of Health Adrian Dix and Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry issued a joint statement regarding updates on the coronavirus response in British Columbia.
“Every health region in British Columbia has patients with COVID-19: 680 are in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 661 are in the Fraser Health region, 94 are in the Island Health region, 150 are in the Interior Health region and 33 are in the Northern Health region,” said Dix and Henry in an emailed statement.
There are now 20 long-term and assisted-living facilities and one acute-care unit with active outbreaks, although no new outbreaks were reported in the last day.
“Outbreaks have been declared over at five facilities, and in review, one facility had been included in error. We have confirmed that the outbreak at Broadway Pentecostal Lodge was an influenza outbreak and not COVID-19. The lodge has been removed from the list,” reads the statement.
Currently, 119 individuals are hospitalized and 52 of those are in intensive care. A total of 966 people who had tested positive for COVID-19 have recovered and no longer require isolation.
Henry and Dix clarified the decrease in recoveries from Thursday’s total of 983 is due to the recovery criteria for the Vancouver Health Authority being updated to “more accurately reflect recovery.”
“New methods include consideration for specific patient symptomology. This has resulted in the decrease in patients considered recovered,” reads the statement.
Earlier today, health officials released the latest epidemiological modelling for the COVID-19 pandemic in British Columbia, which showed that BC’s epidemic curve is “well below” the projections based around Hubei and Italy, and that coronavirus cases have plateaued and started to decline.
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