Interior’s 1st death a man in his 60s

Obituary suggests Kelowna man died due to COVID-19

The first death due to COVID-19 has been recorded in the Interior Health region.

“(He) was a man in his 60s, who had been in recovery at home,” chief health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said Wednesday. “He was mostly at home but had gone into the hospital with an acute condition just prior to his death,” she added.

An obituary for Dennis Herbert Rau earlier this week described his death on April 9 as caused by “complications due to COVID-19.”

Rau, a retired employee of Canada Revenue Agency, was 69 when he died.

When asked about the case after the obituary appeared, Interior Health representatives would only refer to Ministry of Health information that stated as of Wednesday morning there had been no deaths due to COVID-19 in the Interior Health region.

However, during her regular daily update on the pandemic situation in B.C., Henry made specific reference to the first death of COVID-19 in the Interior Health region. She said the case had just been added to the list of deaths due to the disease.

The death was one of three new fatalities reported in the briefing, bringing the total of British Columbians who’ve died of COVID19 to 75.

“These are significant losses. We understand families will be grieving,” Health Minister Adrian Dix said during the daily briefing.

"We want everybody to know that we not only extend our condolences, we, both Dr. Henry and I, reflect on it every single day before we come down here, the cost of this for many individuals who've lost loved ones so far," Dix said.

Across B.C., 44 more people have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total to 1,561.

That includes three more people associated with Bylands Nurseries Ltd. in West Kelowna, bringing the total number infected in that outbreak to 26. Most are foreign farm workers.

There remains only one case at a provincial jail in the South Okanagan, but an outbreak at a federal prison in Mission has grown to include 48 people, seven of whom are in hospital.

Once a person develops symptoms of COVID-19, the critical period usually comes just over a week later, Henry said.

"People who have an apparently mild illness early on, it's a critical period of time, around day five, day six, day seven, where they either start to really get better and shrug it off, or some people can very quickly go downhill," Henry said.

“That is a critical period of time where we’re having more contact with people,” Henry said.

“We’re making sure that if they’re having any experience of shortness of breath or chest pains, or other things that might come with having an infection that infects both the lungs and other parts of the body, we have a low threshold for bringing them into hospital, at least for observation where they can be closer to critical care if needed.”

While the number of new COVID-19 cases reported daily has been trending downward in B.C., and hospitalization numbers are also declining, Henry said the pandemic is ongoing and her orders on physical distancing and business closures will remain in effect for some time.

“We are not yet through this pandemic in B.C., or Canada, or globally, and there’s a lot of work that has to be done to make sure we get through this safely,” she said.

“We are not at the point where we can let up, and I know this is very challenging for people. We’re hearing anecdotes about people getting frustrated and angry, this is a manifestation of fear and anxiety,” Henry said, repeating her oft-made suggestion that people need to show patience and kindness to one another.