Adrian Dix, Minister of Health, and Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.'s provincial health officer, have issued the following joint statement regarding updates on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) response in British Columbia:

“Today, we are announcing five new cases, for a total of 2,632 cases in British Columbia. Four additional epi-linked cases have been included in the Island Health and Vancouver Coastal Health region case reporting. ‘Epi-linked’ means that public health investigations have shown that cases meet the case definition for COVID-19 but may not have been tested for a number of reasons. In future reports, new tested and epi-linked cases will be included as one number.

“There are 201 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and 2,265 people who tested positive have recovered.

“Of the total COVID-19 cases, 26 individuals are hospitalized, six of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation.

“Every health region in British Columbia has patients with COVID-19. Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 909 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 1,334 in the Fraser Health region, 130 in the Island Health region, 195 in the Interior Health region and 64 in the Northern Health region.

“There have been no new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 166 deaths in British Columbia. We offer our condolences to everyone who has lost their loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There have been no new health-care outbreaks. In total, six long-term care or assisted-living facilities continue to have active outbreaks.

“There has been one new community outbreak with three confirmed cases at the Beresford Warming Centre, a shelter in the Fraser Health region. Public health teams are providing support at the site and for the other seven ongoing community outbreaks.

“Today, we shared our latest modelling to show British Columbians where we are in our COVID-19 pandemic and what we are watching for in the B.C. epidemic curve over the coming weeks.

“We have seen the incredible work of our provincewide public health teams in action, which is allowing us to quickly identify and contain new clusters and outbreaks.

“We have learned we need to stay on our path. The measures we have in place are working and so is the gradual easing of some restrictions. The modelling also shows that to keep our curve flat, we must continue to maintain our slow, thoughtful pace.

“Moving forward, our approach is to ‘minimize, manage and modify’: minimize the number of new cases, manage cases and clusters with rapid contact tracing, and modify our measures as needed.

“That means assessing your risks with every step and following the rules for safe physical distancing are key. These include always staying home when ill, keeping your number of contacts small and not having large gatherings where the risk for spreading COVID-19 is so much higher.

“We know no one intends to pass on the virus. When this happens, it most often affects those we care about the most, so we must do all we can to keep our loved ones, our communities and ourselves safe.

“We all have a role to play in our COVID-19 response. What we do today will make a difference tomorrow.”

Learn More:

The latest modelling presentation and information is available online: http://www.bccdc.ca/health-info/diseases-conditions/covid-19/modelling-projections

For more information about BC's Restart Plan, visit: www.gov.bc.ca/restartbc

For B.C.'s surgical renewal plan, visit:
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/health/conducting-health-research-evaluation/reports-publications

For mental health and anxiety support, visit: www.bouncebackbc.ca
Or: www.anxietycanada.com

For guidance and information on self-isolation and self-monitoring, including how to isolate if you live with others, visit:
http://www.bccdc.ca/health-info/diseases-conditions/covid-19/self-isolation

For the provincial health officer's orders, notices and guidance, visit: www.gov.bc.ca/phoguidance

For the latest medical updates, including case counts, prevention, risks and testing, visit: http://www.bccdc.ca/
Or follow @CDCofBC on Twitter.

To learn where, when and how people with symptoms can be tested, visit:
http://www.bccdc.ca/health-info/diseases-conditions/covid-19/testing

The COVID-19 self-assessment app, which includes details about where, when and how to be tested, can be downloaded here: https://bc.thrive.health/

To learn more about Fair PharmaCare, including coverage, how to request an income review and the monthly deductible payment option, visit: https://news.gov.bc.ca/files/Register_for_Fair_PharmaCare.pdf

For non-health related information, including financial, child care and education supports, travel, transportation and essential service information, visit: www.gov.bc.ca/covid19
Or call 1 888 COVID19 (1 888 268-4319) between 7:30 a.m. and 8 p.m. (Pacific time), seven days a week.

For the latest videos and livestreaming of COVID-19 media availabilities, visit:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BCProvincialGovernment/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BCGovNews
YouTube: www.youtube.com/ProvinceofBC

For a Chinese translation: http://news.gov.bc.ca/files/2020.06.4_New_ExistingCasesCOVID-19_CN.pdf

A backgrounder follows.