Another Spike in COVID cases brings Friday total to 589 and an additional in person briefing set for Saturday

Friday's written statement delivered some stark numbers to consider heading into the weekend, with a new daily record of 589 case reports making for the number of cases of COVID recorded in a 24 hour period, the vast majority of that volume found once again in the Fraser Health Authority.

The update was provided by Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix:

“Today, we are reporting 589 new cases, including five epi-linked cases, for a total of 17,149 cases in British Columbia. 

There are 3,741 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, 7,887 people who are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases and 13,035 people who tested positive have recovered. 

Currently, 104 individuals are hospitalized with COVID-19, 28 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation. 

There have been two new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 275 deaths in British Columbia. We offer our condolences to everyone who has lost their loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic."

Across the province, the Health Authorities have reported the following totals over the last 24 hours, 146 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 402 in the Fraser Health region, five in the Island Health region, 24 in the Interior Health region, 12 in the Northern Health region bringing the total number of cases of COVID in Northern BC to 450. 

No new cases of COVID have been reported by people who reside outside of Canada. 

Doctor Henry and Minister Dix also outlined a new texting service in place from the BC Centre for Disease Control, with British Columbians able to sign up to receive text notification of both positive or negative test results, learn more about the program here.

The two top public health officials also noted that they will be holding a rare Saturday briefing to update British Columbia on the work required ahead, an unexpected addition to their reporting schedule that is leading to some speculation from Victoria that more measures may soon be put in place in the province.

Towards that theme today's statement made note of the need to follow all existing measures that are in place.

“When faced with the gathering storm clouds of increased exposures and transmission in a particular sector, we step up inspections to identify gaps and, at times, increase the safety measures that are required. 

Only if it is clearly demonstrated that a business or sector is unable to operate safely are businesses ordered to close. 

Right now, particularly in the Lower Mainland, we are asking businesses to review their COVID-19 safety plans to ensure every step is being taken to protect everyone. 

For employees and customers, you can also do your part and help businesses to stay open by staying away if you are feeling unwell, using a mask when indoors and not asking businesses or their employees to bend the rules. 

We have one COVID-19 curve in B.C., and we all have a role to play to get through this storm and push our curve back down.”

You can review the COVID-19 report for Friday 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, those past advisories  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

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