BC’s Provincial Health Officer says there are now eight new cases of the coronavirus in the province.
Dr. Bonnie Henry also says that for the first time, one of the new patients did not travel to a country where the COVID-19 outbreak is taking place and had no contact with someone who has. She is a woman in her 50s in the Vancouver Coastal Health region. Dr. Henry says testing for COVID-19 is also done on people being tested for influenza and that is how this case was discovered.
Dr. Henry says they’re now working to determine where she was exposed to the virus and says there is someone out there who has the disease, or has recovered from it.
One of the eight new cases is a woman who travelled from Seattle to the Fraser Valley for a family visit. Four others were in contact with a virus patient in his 60s who had recently travelled to Iran and they were already in self-isolation. Two of the new cases are a couple who recently returned from Iran.
Dr.Henry has also confirmed that one of the cases is linked to University Canada West in Vancouver.
At a joint news conference this afternoon, Dr. Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix say the province is “continuing widespread testing by screening British Columbians and travellers with symptoms, along with their close contacts, to identify cases of COVID-19 and take immediate action as we have seen today.”
There are now 21 cases of the coronavirus in BC.
