Saturday COVID-19 Update marks BC at 884 cases, with 17 deaths to date in the province

92 new cases of COVID-19 were announced as part of the Saturday update from Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix; their Saturday announcement noting that the Province now has recored a total of 884 cases to date.

The Breakdown province wide shows that 444 are in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 291 are in the Fraser Health region, 60 are in the Island Health region, 77 are in the Interior Health region, with 12 still the count to date in the Northern Heath region.

"We are saddened to report another COVID-19 related death in the Vancouver Coastal region, resulting in a total of 17 COVID-19 related deaths in British Columbia.

One new long-term care home in the Fraser Health region has a resident who has tested positive for COVID-19. There are now COVID-19 cases in 12 facilities in B.C. All are in the Fraser and Vancouver Coastal health regions. Public health officials are providing support to implement outbreak protocols.

Three hundred and ninety-six people who had tested positive for COVID-19 have recovered and no longer have isolation requirements.

Of the total COVID-19 cases, 81 individuals are currently hospitalized, 52 of those in hospital are in intensive care, and the remaining people who have tested positive for COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation."

Both Dr. Henry and Mr. Dix made note of the current number of Public Health Orders in place and how they are serving to assist the provincial effort in controlling the spread of the virus.

“We have seen countless examples of community goodwill: supporting those in self-isolation, shopping for neighbours and connecting with care and compassion. 

We have taken a step in the right direction, but we know that in the coming weeks, the number of cases is going to continue to rise and our health system will be put to test. 

As a province, all of us must do everything we can to avoid the devastating impacts that we have seen in other parts of the world. 

We must be united and 100% committed to doing all we can to flatten the curve. Thank you for helping to make a difference and now, more than ever, we need you to keep it up.”

Yesterday they both provided for an extensive  presentation that provided a look at some of the scenario modelling that has taken place to review the path of COVID-19 and how the physical distancing measures in place are having an impact in helping to bend the curve.


Some of the background to the Saturday briefing can be found 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

Air Canada suspends service to PrinceRupert, leaving only commercial aviation link to the Northwest now through Terrace

Passenger service to the Prince Rupert Airport has now been suspended

Air Canada has suspended flight operations in much of the Northwest one week earlier than planned, having suspended service to Prince Rupert, Smithers and Haida Gwaii on Thursday, leaving the only air access point to the region now that of the Terrace Airport.

The pause in service for Prince Rupert and Smithers  made for three of a string of suspensions announced for March 26th, the Haida Gwaii service had been suspended three days prior to that.

The final flight out of the Prince Rupert Airport departed at 5:56 PM on Wednesday evening, arriving in Vancouver at 7:27 PM.

The Flight Aware website tracked Jazz flight 8281
which on Wednesday night  made its
final trip to Vancouver until May at least

Air Canada announced it's original timeline for Prince Rupert back on March 18th, the anticipated date to restart flights to the Digby Island Airport is set for the start of May.

More notes on Air Transportation in the Northwest can be found from our archive page here.

British Columbia's Friday COVID-19 Update puts total case count at 792

Health Minister Adrian Dix and Public Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry shared the details today of an increase of 67 new cases in British Columbia for today, bringing the provincial total count to 792.

The case files for all five of the province's health authorities saw 391 in the Vancouver Health region, 262 with the Fraser Health Region, 57 with Island Health, 70 at Interior Health and an increase of 1 in the Northern Health region making for a total of 12.

Two more British Columbians have passed away from COVID-19 and long-term care facilities continue to be the focus for the provincial response.

“We are saddened to report two more deaths as a result of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal health region. Our condolences to their loved ones during this difficult time.

Two additional long-term care homes in the Fraser Health region have staff with confirmed cases of COVID-19, The Harrison at Elim Village and Chartwell Independent Living at Langley Gardens.

In total, 11 long-term care homes in the Vancouver Coastal and Fraser Health regions have confirmed cases of COVID-19. Public health officials are providing support to implement outbreak protocols."

From the background review, it was noted that 275 patients have recovered and no longer require isolation protocols, 73 cases are currently hospitalized and the remainder of those who have tested positive for COVID-19 are recovering at home in self isolation.

Having provided for a briefing earlier on the day of modelling scenarios for the next few weeks/months, both Minster Dix and Doctor Henry again reinforced the need to stay with the measures in place already.

“In the past few days, our upward path has been less severe than other places, but we continue to see steady increases in community transmission cases and continue to be concerned about outbreaks, which could quickly grow and challenge our pandemic response.

The evidence is clear: with every person in British Columbia 100% committed to physical distancing, we can flatten the curve. Over the next two weeks we must be united in this one goal.

We strongly discourage any in-person gathering of any size at this time, but rather encourage using the many online options we have available today to stay connected to friends, family, customers and clients."

As well, Doctor Henry issued a new Health Order as part of the COVID-19 response, directed towards such areas community markets and street markets.

“All occasional/recurring/weekly events where food and other merchandise is sold (e.g., markets, street markets, night markets, Saturday markets or community markets) must only allow vendors that sell food to be at these events. Vendors of non-food items and all other merchandise are prohibited to sell at these events."

The list of Doctor Henry's Orders can be examined here.

Some of the background to the briefing can be reviewed 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

SD52 continues momentum towards continuity of Education Planning

With Spring Break set to end on Sunday, the first day back at school Monday for teachers and staff members will be a very different experience;.

With no students part of the routine, following  the provincial suspension of classes of earlier this month  SD52 is now set to change the learning landscape for the weeks and months ahead.

In a correspondence today for families, students, staff and community members, SD52 Superintendent Irene LaPierre charted the course ahead for education on the North Coast, with plans in motion to deliver learning resources and activities to benefit both parents or guardians and their children.

Towards that, the School District will build on the four guiding principles that have been provided by the Ministry of Education.

1. Maintain a healthy and safe environment for students, families and all employees.

2. Provide services to support children of essential workers.

3. Support vulnerable students who may need special assistance.

4. Provide continuity of educational opportunities for all students.


How they will approach those four principles is explained in the letter which you can review below:

As we made note of Wednesday, the School District is hosting a survey to gain feedback from parents and guardians towards helping to form the education plans as the new ways of delivering information prepare to change the educational experience.

For more notes on SD52 and education across the Northwest see our archive page here.

"Slight chance of optimism perhaps, that rate of growth is being impacted by measures put in place the last few weeks" -- Dr. Bonnie Henry on BC'S COVID-19 response

Public Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Minister of Health Adrian Dix
provided a glimpse into how officials are viewing the next few weeks
for the province as it continues to respond to COVID-19

As they promised on Thursday, Dr. Bonnie Henry and Provincial Health Minister Adrian Dix provided for a briefing today that outlined some of the modelling that the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control have created to explore the potential trajectories for the COVID-19 outbreak in the province.

With Dr. Henry allowing for 'perhaps a slight chance of optimism' she relayed a wealth of information from the findings, taken from the vast amount of work that had been assembled.

With the doctor noting how they are confident that the data available now provides for a good sense of where BC is trending at this time.

"But right now we are confident that this gives us a good sense of where we are in our trajectory in BC compared to other jurisdictions"

From the slide above, Dr. Henry noted that while the trend has been upwards in the last few weeks which had been anticipated, that there may be a bit of bend in motion towards flattening the curve.

The Province's Public Health Officer noted how the key element of getting a reliable amount of data is vital, with focus of approach on the testing strategy.

Dr. Henry highlighted how in recent weeks they have shifted the strategy from testing those who have returned to the province from other countries, to changing the program towards community and people who are getting infections in BC and in the health care sector.

Noting that outbreaks and transmission in those places could have an impact not only on health care workers but on facilities across the province.

The province is also conducting over three thousand tests a day, focusing on the highest risk populations which is higher than most jurisdictions and is comparable to such countries as Singapore and South Korea.

Both Doctor Henry and Health Minister Dix did not want to build any false illusions however.

Reinforcing the message that the current measures in place are working, but that British Columbians must continue to adhere to the program in place and make note of the Public Orders that have been installed.

"The 13th was when we announced travel restrictions, when we announced some of the major orders and restrictions on movement and we started implementing the important physical distancing measures in our community.  

And that was because we realized that we seeing transmission, in the community that was not related to travel or to known cases. So very early on we put in some of these now very restrictive measures that we've been seeing put in place in countries around the world ...

All of those implementations started the week of March 15th/16th, so for me when I'm looking at this curve I know that there are people who were exposed to this virus prior to that date who are going to become sick in the fourteen days after that exposure. 

So it is not surprising and we've been seeing that in the last ten days we've started to see that people are becoming ill.

That these important measures that we have put in place, that all of us need to pay attention to, those distancing measures, we are going to start to see the impact of those in the coming week to two weeks. 

So the second incubation period from when they started, so when we look at this graph that's what we're starting to see in the red line, and I'm not trying to over call it, but I do believe we've seen a flattening a falling off of that curve" -- Dr. Bonne Henry, BC Public Health Officer

During his portion of the presentation Health Minister Adrian Dix reviewed how the preparations for what may be ahead has seen the province identify 17 primary COVID-19 sites, with observations on British Columbia's capacity to meet demand.

Towards the preparation for the outbreak, the work to date has also provided for a range of planning sessions that noted the impact that could come from scenarios that include South Korea, Hubei and two models on Northern Italy.

Mr Dix reviewed the work towards hospital capacity projections,  how they are redeploying staff across all health regions. With Health Authorities province wide implementing measures towards equipment and staffing requirements.

"While we are absolutely determined to have the best results; we are preparing for the worst possible scenarios 

As the days of the epidemic pass here in BC, our needs will become more clear. 

I think it's fair to say, that Dr. Henry our epidemiologist, would always say that next week they'll be better and the week after they'll be better and we're going to obviously continue with this as we go forward"

Towards the best possible outcomes the Health Minister spoke to what's required to bend the curve and to make the projections better.

The Minister noted how British Columbians need to give:

"100 percent commitment from people everywhere in British Columbia. 100 precent commitment to the idea that if you're sick you have to say home, 100 percent commitment to the idea that if you  have to self isolate, that you self isolate. 100 percent commitment to not take unnecessary trips, 100 percent commitment to distancing between one another ... so that we can continue to bend the curve"

He further outlined how they are prepared for all potential impacts on what may come over the next number of weeks, offering a look two scenarios and what they anticipate.

Dr. Henry and Minister Dix take us through all the data through a video hosted by the Provincial government website.


A collection of the slides used as part of the presentation can be accessed here.

The up to date listings of Public Health Officer's Orders and Notices can be reviewed here.

You can review the list of past announcements from the Provincial and Federal governments here, while our archive of those local announcements from the North Coast can be explored here.

City down to one bylaw officer?

In among last night's facebook messaging to the public from the Mayor was a bit of a throw away line that actually seems to be a topic that the City Council may want to address and update the public on.

That of the advisory from Mr. Brain that the city is apparently now back down to just one bylaw officer, someone that it seems the City doesn't seem too keen to share with the province as part of the Provincial State of Emergency.

"They also suggested that our 1 bylaw officer should go enforce their provincial orders...

Putting aside Mayor Brain's rhetoric on the sharing, or not of the bylaw officer, the actual question for City Council should be:

What happened to the second officer and maybe an idea if they plan on filling the vacancy?

So far, the city's career page does not seem to be soliciting any applications for the position.

The quest for adding to the City Bylaw office and the tasks that are performed has been an ongoing theme one which at times takes a meandering path.

Dog Tales of the City: Prince Rupert issues reminder for residents related to run at large dogs
Council hears call for consistent enforcement from Councillor Cunningham
Hiring process now underway for Second Bylaw enforcement officer
Councillor calls for bylaw enforcement to put the "Boot" to parking scofflaws at Rushbrook Floats
City of Prince Rupert to take action on Derelict vehicles

Should they have anything to offer up to the public they could discuss it in public at a council session, or maybe through the new civic governance model we seem to have in place these days on Facebook.

More items of interest related to the City of Prince Rupert can be reviewed here.

Coast Mountain College does inventory of materials for COVID-19 response

In their most recent update for students and staff at Coast Mountain College, the northwest educations facility with campus locations spread across the region highlighted the work that they are doing towards helping the communities they serve with a COVID-19 response.

In Terrace, campus officials conducted an inventory of medical supplies and provided for 10 sets of medical scrubs to Northern Health for use in Terrace for infection prevention and control training.

“We are very pleased to be able to work with Northern Health and our local governments in these exceptional times to assist where we can to provide required medical supplies, equipment and facilities.  I’m proud our staff and faculty have been more than happy to help however we can.” -- President Justin Kohlman

The college is also conducting an inventory of supplies at all of their campuses, including the Prince Rupert campus to be made available for the response effort if required.

This was also the first week for the distributed learning process at all college campuses, the distance learning model was put in place after the college temporarily suspended classes on March 17th, they announced their distributed learning model on March 23.

In an email, Sarah Zimmerman, the Executive Director of Communications for Coast Community College, observed that things went smoothly for the first week for the new approach to learning, though they expect a few hiccups along the way.

She also offered up a glimpse as to how the process works.

Coast Mountain College really emphasized the importance of instructors communicating directly with their students to provide information about what distributed learning process each class would be moving to. 

With such a wide range of programming, solutions are really varied. We have a trades instructor using Zoom to reach out to his class. 

We have instructors connecting with students through blended models including videoconferencing, email, or our internal learning platform called Brightspace.

Our instructors have been innovative, responsive and really invested in ensuring they do the best they can with their students in these unprecedented times. It has been really heartwarming.

You can review the latest updates from the college information stream here.

More notes on Coast Mountain College can be found from our archive page.