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 19 new COVID-19 confirmed positive cases, for a total of 2,775 cases in British Columbia.

“There are 185 active cases of COVID-19 in the province and 2,422 people who tested positive have recovered.

“Of the total COVID-19 cases, 11 individuals are hospitalized, five of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation.

“Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 946 cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 1,438 in the Fraser Health region, 130 in the Island Health region, 196 in the Interior Health region and 65 in the Northern Health region.

“There have been no new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 168 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 community outbreaks and the outbreak at the Oppenheimer Group produce distributor has now been declared over. Public health teams continue to provide support for the four ongoing community locations.

“There have been two new health-care facility outbreaks, at the Mission Memorial Hospital and Tabor Home in Abbotsford. The outbreak at Tabor Home and at the Maple Hill long-term care facility announced yesterday are connected to the outbreak at Mission Memorial Hospital.

“These recent health-care outbreaks are very concerning and clearly demonstrate that COVID-19 remains in our communities.

“Mission Memorial is a small hospital, which means services for the local community are now limited to urgent and emergency care only.

“Public health teams are working hard to contain further spread. While we are monitoring the situation closely, we are hopeful that we have caught these outbreaks in the early stages.

“We know that COVID-19 spreads quickly and can be transmitted to others even when someone has mild symptoms and may not recognize they are ill. One undetected case can quickly result in a surge in new cases.

“As we expect increased travel within our province over the summer months, this is a reminder that the impact on small communities with limited health-care resources can be severe.

“As a result, we ask British Columbians to continue to take all measures to ensure you are safely increasing your social interactions, you are being respectful of communities you may be visiting when on the road and that you are always, without question, staying home and staying away from others if you are even mildly ill.

“Closed spaces, close contact and crowds are higher risk, so anything that involves these things needs to be done with caution. This includes taking precautions to protect yourself and those around you by maintaining a safe physical distance and using a cloth face covering or non-medical mask, for those times when a safe distance cannot always be maintained.

“Right across our province, everyone has worked hard to flatten our curve and now we must keep COVID-19 low and slow. To do that, let’s continue to work together, to take care of each other and do our part.”

Learn More:

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

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: https://news.gov.bc.ca/files/2020.06.17_New_ExistingCasesCOVID-19_CN.pdf

A backgrounder follows.