B.C. reports 77 new COVID-19 cases, bringing total to 348

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced 77 new cases of COVID-19 in B.C. today (March 20), for a total of 348.

Twenty-two people are now in hospital, said Henry, 10 of whom are in the ICU.

Six people have recovered from the coronavirus and there are no new deaths. 

One of the cases is a staff member at the Dufferin Care Centre in Coquitlam, B.C. – the fourth Metro Vancouver care home to have confirmed cases of the coronavirus among either staff or residents. 

That centre is now under outbreak protocol. 

There are now 200 cases in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 95 in Fraser Health, 30 in Island Health, 19 in Interior Health and four in the Northern Health Region.

Healthcare workers 'critical' to fighting COVID-19

It's been a "tremendous challenge" for the healthcare sector to watch what is happening with the coronavirus around the world the last few weeks and months, said Henry. 

"I know how challenging it is when we are dealing with a new virus, a virus, particularly, for which we have no cure," she said. "And we know that it can cause quite severe illness to people that we love and people that we care for, people that we're close to. And it's been a tremendous challenge for our healcare sector to watch what's happening."

About two dozen healthcare workers in B.C. have also been infected with COVID-19, said Henry, but none have had a severe illness. 

Henry said it's important that the province has the adminstrative processes in place to minimize the risk of passing COVID-19 to others if someone goes to the clinic or hospital.

She also acknowledged that there has been "a lot of anger and concern" that B.C. won't have the supplies needed to protect healthcare workers. 

"I want to say that right now, we've been working on this across the province and across the country," said Henry. "And we are committed to doing everything that we can to make sure that we have what we need to best protect everybody in our healthcare system right now."

Health Minister Adrian Dix also spoke directly to healthcare workers, saying they are "working miracles."

"IWe are grateful, we are enormously grateful for all your efforts," he said. "We are making headway together against this threat, but we are not there yet."

Dix also said that British Columbians must do "everything possible" to support frontline workers and hospitals, and the entire healthcare sector.

"They are critical to beating this virus," he said.

"But our healthcare system doesn't operate in a vacuum. It needs support from every part of society in every part of the economy," said Dix, adding that essential services such as childcare and extra accommodation "must continue," as they are also critical to beating the virus. 

Restaurants must go to takeout or delivery only

A number of social distancing measures have been implemented in B.C., including limiting gatherings to less than 50 people and asking people to keep a distance of two metres between one another. Anyone returning from international travel has to self-isolate for 14 days. 

"It's become clear to me that there are certain settings where (social distancing) is really a challenge," said Henry. "It is becoming obvious as it has to many of the municipalities around here that this is a very challenging thing to do (in restaurants).

"So from today (Friday) on, my order is that restaurants must move to a takeout delivery model only."

These measures will help protect healthcare workers, said Henry, as well as vulnerable members of society.

"The reasons that we're doing this are so that we can build a firewall. We can prevent transmission of this virus between us, so that we can prevent people who are the most susceptible to having severe illness or dying from this disease from being exposed to it in the first place."