There are 40 new cases of COVID-19 reported in BC, for a total of two-hundred-and-71 known infections.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says the numbers are based on positive test results and warns it’s “not always a reflection of what’s actually happening.”
In addition, an elderly resident of the Lynn Valley Care Centre in North Vancouver has died, the seventh at that facility, bringing the total number of COVID-19 related deaths in the province to eight. Across Canada, 11 deaths are blamed on the virus.
Seventeen people are hospitalized in BC and nine of them are in ICU. Dr. Henry says most of those in hospitals in BC are over 60. Among younger people, there are more women than men infected and Dr. Henry says that’s the result of healthcare workers contracting the virus.
Dr. Henry says people who don’t have symptoms don’t need to be tested. People who have returned from traveling and developed mild symptoms, but are in isolation are also not being tested.
She urges people to stay at home as much as possible and continue practicing physical distancing.
Dr. Henry says it’s “not a normal time and we need to keep those distances between us.”