67 new COVID cases in B.C. for total of 792; two more deaths; 70 cases in Interior Health
B.C.’s provincial health officer said earlier Friday that she is cautiously optimistic our province’s experience with COVID-19 will more closely mirror South Korea, which has stemmed the outbreak, than Northern Italy.
In her afternoon update, Dr. Bonnie Henry said that there were 67 new COVID cases in the province in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 792.
In the Interior Health region there were an additional eight for a total of 70.
Sadly, the number of fatalities increased by two, to 16.
Both of the most recent deaths were in the Vancouver Coastal Health region.
There are 73 people in hospital, while 275 have fully recovered.
Dr. Henry said in the past few days, our upward path has been less severe than other places, but we continue to see steady increases in community transmission cases and continue to be concerned about outbreaks, which could quickly grow and challenge our pandemic response…
“The evidence is clear: with every person in British Columbia 100 per cent committed to physical distancing, we can flatten the curve. Over the next two weeks we must be united in this one goal,” said Henry.
She added they strongly discourage any in-person gathering of any size at this time, but rather encourage using the many online options we have available today to stay connected to friends, family, customers and clients.
Dr. Henry concluded, every day that we stay home and stay apart will bolster our COVID-19 response.
“This is how we will protect our health-care workers, whose job it is to care for us, our loved ones and ourselves.”
The next government update will be at 12 p.m. Saturday.
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The COVID-19 situation in British Columbia is continually evolving and the information below is current as of 3:30 p.m. on Friday, March 27, 2020.
Cases:
* Total confirmed cases in B.C.: 792
* New cases since March 26, 2020: 67
* Hospitalized cases: 73
* COVID-19 related deaths: 16
* Recovered: 275
Confirmed cases by region:
* Vancouver Coastal Health: 391
* Fraser Health: 262
* Island Health: 57
* Interior Health: 70
* Northern Health: 12
Testing:
* Testing capacity in British Columbia has increased to approximately 3,500 tests per day.
* 34,561 individuals tested as of March 25, 2020.
* Across Canada, there are more than 10,000 tests per day.
* Testing is available for all who need it, but not everyone requires a test.
* If you have no symptoms, mild symptoms or you are a returning traveller self-isolating at home, you do not require a test.
* For each of these situations, the public health advice remains the same, regardless of test results: self-isolate for 10 days to monitor for the development of symptoms or until your symptoms are completely gone.