There are now 2,232 cases of COVID-19 in B.C., after health officials announced eight new cases Tuesday—the lowest number of new COVID-19 cases recorded in a day since late February.
According to provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, there are 849 cases in Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), 1031 in Fraser Health, 124 on Vancouver Island, 177 in Interior Health and 51 in Northern Health.
There is one new outbreak in a long-term care facility and two new acute care outbreaks. Currently, there are 22 active outbreaks in long-term facilities in the Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health regions with 271 residents and 171 staff affected. Seventeen outbreaks have been declared over, including the Lynn Valley Care Centre, which was one of the first major outbreaks.
The outbreak at the Mission federal correctional institute in the Fraser Valley has continued to grow at 134 cases. That includes 121 inmates and 13 staff who have tested positive for COVID-19. An investigation is ongoing and the health authority expects more people may develop symptoms in the coming days and weeks.
There continues to be seven positive cases at the Fraser Valley Poulty plant, while 55 people have tested positive in the ongoing outbreak at Superior Poultry, a chicken processing plant in Coquitlam. There are 35 positive cases related to the initial outbreak announced a couple of weeks ago at United Poultry Company Ltd., a Vancouver processing plant. Investigations are ongoing at all plants. Fraser Health had disclosed an outbreak at Port Coquitlam's Sofina Foods poultry facility but Henry did not mention that outbreak in her May 5 briefing.
There are 15 positive cases of COVID-19 connected to the Kearl Lake plant in Alberta and additional family members. Anyone who is returning from the plant is asked to self-isolate for 14 days.
There have been four new deaths, for a total of 121 fatalities in the province.
There are currently 78 people in acute care in hospital and 21 are in critical care.
Henry announced that 1,472 people have fully recovered and are no longer in isolation.
"What I need to remind everybody is that we are not yet through this, we are, as I mentioned yesterday, very likely, at the end of our beginning," stated Henry solemnly. "But there's a long way to go—for all of us."
Henry added that the orders and restrictions the province has put in place will remain, and that people should not begin to plan for a return to normalcy.
"As the modeling has shown, moving too quickly can undo all of the work we have done," she remarked.
"There are some things that will not change in the coming weeks and months."
As different sectors open up, Henry continues to underscore the importance of the measures that will be put in place to keep everyone safe. However, she noted that everyone should try to be understanding of each other as we adjust.
"It is kindness that will get us through this," she said.
Now, and as the respiratory season begins in the fall, Henry said that people need to be very vigilant about staying home if they have any type of illness. Further, she stated that people must continue to think about—"Few faces and big spaces."
Last week, Henry stated that despite a number of community outbreaks, the decrease in cases is clear evidence that the sustained efforts to follow public health measures has slowed the rate of transmission of COVID-19.
"In addition, our increased surveillance testing has led us to find people in our community who are positive for COVID-19 and the vast majority of them are linked to outbreaks now, which is an important thing for us to understand so that we know where transmission is happening in our community," Henry said.
The province continues to postpone scheduled surgeries and allocate a significant number of hospital beds for a potential spike in COVID-19 hospitalizations. Provincewide, there are 3,959 beds waiting empty for COVID-19 patients. That means that hospital occupancy is at about 64.5 per cent capacity, down from about 103 per cent capacity before the COVID-19 pandemic. Intensive care units are about 46.6 per cent full, according to Health Minister Adrian Dix.
Despite the deep reduction in hospital occupancy, hospital staff have been kept busy.
"There are no savings to speak of," said Health Minister Adrian Dix.
"We didn't say because we're not doing certain procedures right now that those people can go home. We are fully in place and ready to provide care."
With files from Business in Vancouver reporter Glen Korstrom.
This article originally appeared here.
