Thursday, April 30, 2020

Thursday COVID-19 Update marks 25 new cases of virus, two passings and a look at how we may soon be able to expand our social contact circles slightly in the months ahead



The Thursday COVID-19 update from Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix relayed news of 25 new cases of the coronavirus for the last 24 hours in the province, making  for a total of 2,112 cases in British Columbia.

Of that number, 815 are in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 961 are in the Fraser Health region, 120 are in the Island Health region, 170 are in the Interior Health region and 46 are in the Northern Health region, which is the same mark as that of Wednesday. 

 “We are saddened to report two new COVID-19 related deaths: one in the Vancouver Coastal Health region and one in the Fraser Health region, for a total of 111 deaths in British Columbia. We offer our condolences to everyone who has lost their loved ones. 

In the last day, there have been no new long-term care or assisted-living facility outbreaks. In total, 21 facilities and three acute-care units have active outbreaks, with outbreaks now declared over at 12 care facilities."

As for the total volume of cases, to date, 1,322 people who had tested positive for COVID-19 have recovered. Of the total COVID-19 cases, 82 individuals are currently hospitalized, 30 of those are in intensive care, and the remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.

Both Doctor Henry and Health Minister Dix, returned to a familiar theme for Thursday, noting how the public needs to remain vigilant to the risks posed by COVID-19 as well as the measures in place to remain safe.

Responding to a question about more relaxed rules being introduced in Alberta, the Top Public Health Officer for BC also offered up a glimpse of what our time of expanding our social contacts may look like in the not too distant future.

"So here in BC of course, we have always maintained and it's something that I feel quite passionately about as you probably are aware. That being outside is important for us to be able to release when we're going through such stressful times as these, and that we need to do that though safely. 

And that means maintaining our distance and going with our family, our household group, our circle. As we're moving into the next phase of this, we need to consider each of us, in our own family, how we want to and how we can, expand our circles. 

But doing it in a way that's safe.

So that does mean, Yes we might be able to connect with others in a way that we haven't been able to do in the last little while. But we need to be thoughtful about it. Because the more groups and people that we have connections with, the more chances are that we might transmit this virus.

So we need to be careful about our own situation and it may be fine for young people who are by themselves for example, to connect then with other small groups of friends.

We're not going to have large groups gathering together, we're not going to be having indoor parties in  this coming summer.  But, we can look at how we can safely have more contact and more people in our lives to have those circles slightly bigger.

The challenge is going to be how do we protect those people who need it most"


You can review the full Thursday statement here.


The BC Centre for Disease control has some valuable Coronavirus notes related to COVID-19 you can explore that information here.

You can learn more about the outbreak from both the Province and the Federal government from the links below:

Federal Government site

British Columbia Government site

The World Health Organization website also offers up the latest advisories on the global situation.

More from  Northern Health can be reviewed here 

You can review our archive of past statements and local information here.

Local governments and organizations have also provided for increased awareness of COVID-19 issues, the string of statements that came quickly at the end of the week can be reviewed here.

For notes from across Canada and British Columbia we have been archiving the latest items through our political portal Darcy McGee

Ottawa Observations

Victoria Viewpoints

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