Image Credit: Global BC

By Simon Little / Global BC

Coronavirus outbreak

B.C. confirms 7 new COVID-19 cases, 2 of them health-care workers

Mar 10, 2020 | 4:17 PM

VANCOUVER — British Columbia has identified seven new cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the provincial total to 39. Two of the new cases may be incidents of community transmission.

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says two of the new cases are health-care workers associated with the Lynn Valley Care Centre, a North Vancouver long-term care facility that has seen multiple cases. Both remain in isolation at home.

The first person from the facility to be diagnosed with the disease, also a heath-care worker, has now been admitted to hospital and remains in stable condition, Henry said.

Henry said no additional residents of the facility have tested positive, but that testing is ongoing for people with symptoms.

Three of B.C.’s new cases are travel-related, Henry said. One is a man in his 40s who travelled to Germany, another is a man in his 90s who was on the Grand Princess cruise ship, and one is a woman in her 60s who travelled to Egypt. All are in the Vancouver Coastal Health Region.

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Two other new cases are in the Fraser Health region. One is a man in his 90s, and officials have not yet determined how he contracted the virus. The other is a man is 40s, and Henry said officials believed he contracted the virus in the community.

“It is these community cases that give us some degree of concern and grief, but being able to detect them is really important,” she said.

“As soon as we detect them, we can start that detailed investigation to find out where they might have come in contact and it helps us uncover where other chains of transmission are in our community.”

The province announced Canada’s first fatality from the virus, a man in his 80s living at the Lynn Valley Care Centre, on Monday.

Four patients and two staff members at the facility have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, which is also the only known source of community transmission of COVID-19 in B.C.

Henry said health officials were still working to determine how the disease entered the care home.

B.C. has confirmed 32 cases of COVID-19, four of of whom have recovered fully from the virus.

Henry said several other early cases are now asymptomatic and that officials are waiting on two negative tests 24 hours apart before it could clear those patients as recovered.