There are now 2,407 cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in B.C., after health officials announced 15 new cases Friday.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry reports that there are 878 cases in Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), 1,664 in Fraser Health, 126 on Vancouver Island, 181 in Interior Health and 58 in Northern Health.
There has been one new acute-care outbreak at the Abbotsford Regional Hospital. In total, 15 long-term care or assisted-living facilities and five acute-care units have active cases.There are no new community outbreaks to report.
There has been a new community outbreak with two confirmed cases at the Oppenheimer Group, which is a fruit and vegetable processing plant in Coquitlam. A public health investigation is ongoing. Active contract tracing is underway and the plant remains open at this time.
Public health teams are also continuing to provide support for community outbreaks in the poultry sector, at the Mission Institution and with those connected to the Kearl Lake plant in Alberta.
There have been five new deaths, for a total of 140 fatalities in the province.
There are currently 51 people in acute care in hospital and 12 are in critical care.
There are 359 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and 1,908 people who tested positive have recovered.
“We must continue to be measured and thoughtful with each step forward in our COVID-19 recovery. The new outbreaks demonstrate that there continues to be risk of COVID-19 in our communities," said Henry.
“We want a strong start, and to do that we need to stay local, stay apart and stay 100 per cent committed to working together."
Henry adds that spending time in B.C.'s provincial parks is a great way to stay close to home and get some fresh air. However, they are only open for day use, and we must, "put our safe social interaction ‘rules’ into action."
“Today, education and child care guidance was also released to allow schools to once again begin in-class learning on June 1 and prepare for a full return in September," she explained. “Our schools and daycares will look and feel different, but they will operate in the safest way possible for everyone – for staff, students and families."
“From the start of this pandemic, British Columbians have demonstrated incredible compassion and care for our health-care workers, seniors, Elders and our communities. The result has been the flattening of our curve.
"Let’s keep working through this together.”
This story originally appeared here.
