A record number of tests yielded 82 new cases of COVID-19 across B.C., provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said Thursday.
Henry said an unprecedented 10,899 tests were conducted over the previous 24 hours ending midday Thursday.
"I think that's an incredible feat as our laboratories have been ramping up across the province and I know there has been some challenges in some places but this really speaks to the amazing work that people are doing across the province to make sure people are getting the testing they need," Henry said.
She said those who test positive are notified within 24 hours while it can take a few days for those who test negative to get their results.
Less than one per cent of the tests over the past day were positive, Henry noted.
"That tells us we're doing a good job of finding people and that this is a true leveling off of cases," she said.
However, Henry stopped short of saying the curve is now bending downward, saying instead that she's "cautiously optimistic."
"We're not seeing that exponential increase," she said. "We've been having a linear increase and it's kind of slowed down.
"We still have numbers that reflect that we're still having ongoing transmission in the community, that we need to be careful. We've found this virus - and I say this with all humility - that it sneaks up on us and we can have explosive outbreaks if we're not on our guard."
Five of those new cases were in Northern Health and came out of 482 tests conducted in the region, according to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.
Active cases in Northern Health stood at 35, down by three from midday Wednesday.
Three of those cases were in hospital with one of them in intensive care, down by one and two respectively.
As of Thursday, there were 3,093 active cases in B.C. with 69 in hospital and 19 of those in intensive care. Henry reported one new death, in Fraser Health, bringing the total since the pandemic broke out to 235 in B.C.
On September 16, the province saw a spike of 183 new cases and a single-day record of 12 new cases was reported for Northern Health on September 15.
On Thursday, Henry addressed the "concern and anxiety around schools," and noted that while there have been exposures - defined as an instance when a single person who has the virus has been in the school during their infectious period - there have been no outbreaks in schools.
"An outbreak in a school is when we have ongoing transmission and we're not clear who has been transmitting to who," Henry said. "There is widespread transmission in the school or between classes or groups.
"We have not had any outbreaks in our schools yet in British Columbia. It is a possibility, we've seen it happen in other places, and we will be watching for that, but we do know our system is working because we are finding cases, we are finding smaller transmission events and we're isolating people and preventing outbreaks from happening."
