Seven new cases of COVID-19 in province
Government preparing for the worst: Horgan
Seven more people are sick with COVID-19 in B.C., health officials announced on Tuesday.
It brings the B.C. total to 39 and the Canadian total to 93.
Two of the new B.C. cases are care workers at the Lynn Valley Care Centre in North Vancouver where a resident in his 80s died on Sunday, said the provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry. “There are no new cases in residents of the Lynn Valley Care Centre, so that’s good news,” she said.
Three of the new cases are travel-related: a woman in her 60s who had been on a tour in Egypt, a man in his 40s who had visited Germany, and a man in his 90s who had been on the Grand Princess cruise ship.
All five of these new cases are people who live in the Vancouver Coastal Health region. All are recovering at home.
There are two additional cases among residents of the Fraser Health region, both of which appear to be cases of community transmission.
One is a 40-year-old male who tested positive for the novel coronavirus, but had no known contact with people arriving from abroad.
The second is another man in his 90s; officials have also not determined how he contracted the virus. The older man is in intensive care and in isolation in hospital.
“It is these community cases that give us some degree of concern and grief,” said Henry. “But being able to detect them is really important because as soon was we can detect them, we can start that detailed investigation to find out where they may have come in contact.”
Premier John Horgan said Tuesday that the provincial government is preparing for the worst on COVID-19.
With an open economy and a diverse population, Horgan said the number of cases in the province is not surprising.
Horgan said B.C.’s public health institutions are well placed to cope with the novel coronavirus, having learned lessons from the SARS outbreak in 2003 and the H1N1 pandemic in 2009.
The Public Health Agency of Canada has posted guidelines aimed at helping organizers figure out whether to cancel their events.
The next best thing to stopping the virus completely is to slow it down, public health officials have said, and try to delay widespread community transmission as long as possible to ease the burden on the health-care system.
The newly released federal guidelines urge organizers to assess risk, highlighting factors like the ages of the attendees, given the virus hits older populations hardest, and whether they are likely to be arriving from regions that have been affected by COVID19.
They also offer ways to reduce the risk without cancelling the event altogether, such as by limiting the number of people who attend, staggering arrivals and departures, making more handwashing stations available, or even livestreaming activities online.
As for potential school closures and limiting access to public spaces, chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said that will also be up to local and provincial governments if transmission becomes widespread in their area.
Two B.C. schools have already announced closures. Glenlyon Norfolk School in the Victoria area has been closed as a person with a connection to the school awaits coronavirus test results. West Vancouver’s private Collingwood School announced an early spring break for the same reason.