Two more cases of COVID-19 were reported in the Northern Health area, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the north since the pandemic began to 28, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said on Tuesday.
Three people were being treated in northern B.C. hospitals for the disease as of Tuesday, Health Minister Adrian Dix said. One of those patients was in critical care, according to B.C. Centre for Disease Control data.
Across the province, the total number of confirmed cases increased by 27, bringing the provincial total to 1,517. A total of 134 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized in B.C. as of Tuesday afternoon, of which 58 were in critical care.
Three more fatalities from COVID-19 were reported, bringing the total number of fatalities in the province to 72, Henry said.
"All three were in long-term care homes (in the Lower Mainland)," Henry said.
There have been no deaths linked to COVID-19 in northern B.C. to date.
A case of COVID-19 has been detected in one more long-term care facility in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, she added. A total of 21 long-term care facilities in the province still have active outbreaks of the disease.
Across the province, a total of 942 people have fully recovered from COVID-19 – up from 905 on Monday. In the Northern Health Authority area, 21 people have recovered from COVID-19, the B.C. CDC reported. That is up from 12 people fully recovered when the B.C. CDC last reported its data on April 9.
Throughout B.C. there were 4,703 empty hospital beds as of Tuesday, Dix said, giving the province's hospitals a 58.1 per cent occupancy rate.
A "very significant" contributor to the low occupancy rate is the 13,938 elective surgeries which have been cancelled or postponed, Dix said. However, he said, surgeons are continuing to perform emergency surgeries and urgent scheduled surgeries.
Since the province began cancelling elective surgeries, 8,231 surgical procedures have been performed in the province of which about half were scheduled surgeries that couldn't wait, he said.
"What the cancellation of surgeries reminds us is to continue to be committed ourselves, because there are people who are sacrificing a great deal," Dix said.
