No new deaths from COVID-19 a B.C. landmark

B.C. reported no COVID -19 deaths on Tuesday for the first day in weeks.

“We want to be able to do this every day, so no more families have to deal with the loss of somebody they love,” said the provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry. So far, 161 people have died from COVID -19 in B.C. since it appeared in late January.

B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix said there were only 11 new cases of COVID -19 confirmed by testing in B.C. between noon Monday and noon Tuesday.

“It is something for which we’re really grateful,” Dix said.

There are 258 active cases in the province, with 37 people in hospital, including seven in intensive care. Those numbers continue to fall.

Henry said the Richmond hospital outbreak was over and there had been no new outbreaks in health facilities or in the community.

There have been no new cases reported from the Mission Institution federal prison in almost one incubation period of two weeks, but that outbreak has not been declared over.

Henry said there were now two cases connected with the Matsqui Institution federal prison outbreak, with a staff member contracting the disease from a prisoner who had been transferred from a provincial facility to Matsqui and then to Mountain Institution in Agassiz.

There are still outbreaks in 14 long-term care and assisted living facilities and one in a hospital.

Henry said that antibody blood testing was being planned with 200,000 British Columbians already signed up. She said while the official number of cases reported in B.C. so far was 2,541, the actual number was probably higher.