Dale Boyd

Osoyoos Times 

There are 94 test-positive cases of COVID-19 in the Interior Health region as the province’s health authority cautioned residents that “we are not through the storm yet.”

“We really are at a critical juncture right now in B.C.,” said B.C.’s provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry at a Monday press conference in Victoria. “And I’ve said this before but the next two weeks, we’re in our second incubation period. This is the critical time for us.”

March 29 saw a small number of new cases, and in the last 24 hours an additional 70 cases brought B.C.’s total COVID-19 test-positive cases to 970 province-wide.

Of those, there are 94 in the Interior Health region, 472 in Vancouver Coastal Health, 323 in the Fraser Health Authority, 67 on Vancouver Island,  and 14 in the Northern Health Authority.

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Thirteen assisted living facility outbreaks have occurred, all in the Fraser and Vancouver health regions.

In the province 106 people have been hospitalized with COVID-19 and 60 people are in critical care.

Henry noted 48 per cent of cases have fully recovered in B.C. including over 70 people who were in the hospital or Intensive Care Units (ICU).

Two additional deaths have occurred, both in the Vancouver Coastal Health region and the BC Coroners Service announced its first confirmed COVID-19-related death in the province after post-mortem testing. A male from the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority region died in his residence, the Coroners Service stated. A total of 19 people have reportedly died in the province due to COVID-19. 

Whether the province will see dramatic increases or a smaller numbers of cases trickle in hospitals in the next week is key, but “hard to know right now,” Henry said.  This is the province’s “watershed” week, she said.

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“Things that we were doing are making a difference. We are not through the storm yet. We have not yet reached our peak. We have more people every day who are in hospital and in our Intensive Care Units. So we need to continue to do all we can across government, across our health system and in our community. Every person needs to dot their bit.”

Minister of Health Adrian Dix announced that paid parking is suspended at all health authority sites province-wide.