Another person in the Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) region has died from COVID-19, as the provincial total rose to 884 Saturday as health officials reported 92 new cases.
Dr. Bonnie Henry says there are no new recorded cases in Northern Health. The total remains at 12.
Twelve long-term care homes in B.C. have at least one staff member or resident that has tested positive for B.C. Six of the care homes are in the VCH region, and six in Fraser Health. All of those care homes are under outbreak protocol.
There are now 81 patients in hospital, 52 of whom are in ICU, said provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.
Numbers recorded include 444 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 291 in Fraser Health, 60 in Island Health and 77 in Interior Health.
A total of 396 cases have recovered in B.C., which equates to 45 per cent of total cases.
Henry addressed B.C.'s response to COVID-19, noting she many have said the province should lockdown, as is happening in other places such as New York or Italy.
"We have talked a number of times about how we're doing things here in British Columbia, and how it's very similar to what others are calling a lockdown," said Henry. "We have done things more strategically, or we tried to do it in a very thoughtful, purposeful way, rather than having blanket restrictions on certain things."
Henry cited the example of school closures, and said the province needed to ensure it had supports in place for essential workers, such as people who work in health care or in grocery stores.
"We need to have the ability to care for their children," she said. "And that's what our school districts are working on."
B.C. at a 'critical point'
There has been "extraordinary goodwill and compassion and care" in B.C.'s communities, said Henry, which is what will help British Columbians get through the coronavirus epidemic.
The measures introduced over the last few weeks are designed to prevent transmission of more cases, she said.
"Any severe outbreak or cluster of cases is going to tip the scales for us," said Henry. "We're at that very critical point right now. We need to continue this action. Together, we must stay apart, we must be 100-per-cent committed until we flatten this curve.
Now more than ever, we need you to keep this up."
Henry said she appreciates everything that British Columbians are doing right now to fight the spread of the coronavirus, saying those actions are what "is going keep us going."
On Friday, Henry presented the province's current epidemiological modelling of COVID-19, which shows how social, or physical, distancing measures may have helped lessen the spread of the virus in B.C.
But Henry cautioned that it's not possible to know when B.C. has reached the peak of its epidemic until after it has passed.
"We don't know the peak until we are looking back at it," she said. "So, none of this (modelling) is able to let us know if we've reached the peak or not. We need to continue to monitor and follow everything on a daily basis to see if we are flattening that curve."
"But really, the only way to tell is in retrospect."
- with files from Kirsten Clarke, Richmond News
