The Northern Health region saw one new case of COVID-19 on Friday, a day after setting a record for the most cases reported in a single day.
In a joint statement issued on Friday afternoon, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix said the total number of cases in the Northern Health region since the start of the outbreak grew to 204.
"Today, we are announcing 132 new cases, for a total of 6,962 cases in British Columbia," Henry and Dix said in the statement. "There are 1,461 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, 3,198 people who are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases and 5,273 people who tested positive have recovered."
On Friday the B.C. Centre for Disease Control reported 28 active cases in the north. There were eight people hospitalized with the disease in northern B.C., including two in intensive care.
The B.C. CDC reported 289 new COVID-19 tests were performed in the Northern Health region on Friday, bringing the total number of tests performed in the north to 15,935.
Throughout B.C. there were a total of 49 people hospitalized with COVID-19, including 10 in intensive care.
"There have been no new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 213 deaths in British Columbia," Henry and Dix said. "We offer our condolences to everyone who has lost their loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic."
Henry and Dix reported one new outbreak at the Evergreen Hamlets long-term care home in Surrey on Friday. Public health officials are now monitoring 14 outbreaks in long-term care and assisted-living facilities – all located in the Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health regions – and three outbreaks in acute-care facilities.
"In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, our strength – as a province, as communities and as individual people – has been in all of us working together as one," Henry and Dix said. "We know COVID-19 has not been without challenge and loss. But we are working each day to find the balance of keeping new cases low and slow to protect those who are most vulnerable, while keeping our communities going. There are thousands upon thousands of people across British Columbia who are doing their part to protect our province. We thank you for all that you have done and all that you continue to do."
