Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

One more case of COVID-19 in the north, outbreak at B.C. chicken processing plant

The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Northern Health region rose by one to 40 on Tuesday, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said. The number of people hospitalized from the disease in the Northern Health remained at three, B.C.
Bonnie Henry wEB
B.C. provincial health officer Bonnie Henry provides a COVID-19 update at a news conference in Victoria.

The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Northern Health region rose by one to 40 on Tuesday, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said.

The number of people hospitalized from the disease in the Northern Health remained at three, B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix said. Across B.C. a total of 109 people were hospitalized due to COVID-19, including 51 in critical care.

A senior in a long-term care home in the Vancouver Coastal Health region died of COVID-19 between Monday and Tuesday, increasing the province's death toll from the disease to 87, Henry said. A total of 1,041 people in B.C. have fully recovered from the disease.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in B.C. increased by 25 to 1,724 total, including some cases detected as part of an outbreak at a United Poultry Co. chicken processing plant in Vancouver, she said.

"Twenty-eight employees tested positive. Not all of those people were involved in today's numbers," Henry said. "The plant has been closed, and close contacts have been notified."

Vancouver Coastal Health was notified on Sunday of a worker who tested positive, Henry said. Public health officials inspected the plant and tested anyone who showed symptoms of the disease.

The plant operates with a federal licence under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Food inspection Agency, she said. Meat packing plants are required to have plans in place to operate safely during the COVID-19 pandemic, she said.

"Even essential workplaces have to have prevention in place," she said. "A couple outbreaks we've had recently have happened because people haven't paid attention to being even mildly sick."

If people have any symptoms linked to COVID-19, they are required to stay home and not come to work or other public places, she added.

For consumers worried about their food because of this outbreak or those at two meat packing plants in Alberta, Henry said normal measures for safely preparing meat are all that are required: cooking meat thoroughly, washing your hands and any cooking surfaces that touched raw meat, preventing cross-contamination between raw meat and other food, etc.

"I know there will be concerns," she said. "We don't have any evidence that COVID-19 can be spread by meat, or by packaging."

The B.C. Centre for Disease Control was expected to release more detailed statistics on the COVID-19 situation in B.C at 5 p.m. today. This story will be updated when that data is available.