(Image Credit: Province of British Columbia)

By Dylana Kneeshaw

COVID-19

B.C health officials remind residents to limit gatherings, with 10 new COVID-19 cases reported

May 23, 2020 | 1:31 PM

VICTORIA — B.C health officials are reminding people to limit gatherings and stay within Phase Two restrictions, with another 10 cases of COVID-19 reported today.

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced 10 new positives this afternoon (May 23), for a provincial case count of 2, 517.

There have been two additional deaths since Friday’s update, for a total of 157 people who have died from the virus.

Dr. Henry says there have been 194 positive cases within Interior Health so far, which remains the same as Friday’s total.

Around the province, 890 cases have been identified in Vancouver Coastal Health, 1,244 within Fraser Health, 127 for Vancouver Island Health, and 62 in the Northern Health region.

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Of the total cases, Dr. Henry says there are currently 303 that are active. Currently 39 people are hospitalized, with 8 being treated in critical care or ICUs.

Recovery wise, health officials say 2,057 of the total cases have now recovered, or 82 per cent.

As of Saturday, there are 14 active outbreaks in long term care, or assisted living facilities, and 2 outbreaks in acute care.

An additional community outbreak has been identified at Nature’s Touch, a frozen food processing plant in Abbotsford. So far, 5 people have tested positive for COVID-19, and the health authority is working to monitor and contain the outbreak.

With that, Dr. Henry says it’s crucial that people pay attention to the restrictions outlined for the second phase of B.C’s ReStart plan.

“And it has been a week where people have taken it slowly, but we need to remember, and these outbreaks remind us that gatherings of any kind increase the risk of transmission,” she stresses, “And our public health surveillance needs to continue, and will continue to quickly identify new cases, and to find those they’ve been in contact with, and prevent transmission to others.”

She adds that gatherings of any kind are still a risk, and concern right now.

“The impacts won’t been seen until early next week,” Dr. Henry says, “I think this is also a warning sign that as businesses open we need to be very vigilant and make sure that if we have symptoms, or if we see symptoms of any kind in our employees, that we make sure they stay away from work, and that they’re tested. If we catch these early we can prevent those transmissions that lead to widespread illness in a setting.”

For more information from the B.C Centre for Disease Control, click here.

To access the B.C Government’s COVID-19 resource page, click here.