884 people in British Columbia have tested positive for COVID-19 as of Saturday.
In the last 24 hours, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said 92 new cases have tested positive.
Of the provincial total test positive cases that includes 77 in the Interior Health Authority and 12 in Northern Health.
“In addition, we’re up to 12 long-term care homes that have had at least one resident or staff test positive for this virus, and that’s six in the Vancouver Coastal Health Region and six in the Fraser Health Region,” Henry said. “And as we know whenever we have even a single case in a long-term care home the full outbreak protocol is being implemented in those homes.”
Henry said 81 people are now hospitalized in the province, with 52 in intensive care.
“We also have one additional death in the Vancouver Coastal Health Region,” she said. “On a positive note we now have 45 percent of our cases have fully recovered and that includes 396 people who have had COVID-19 who are now recovered.”
As for people stating that B.C. should have a lock-down as other places, Henry said they have talked a number of times about how we’re doing things here in British Columbia.
“And really we’ve done very similar to what others are calling a lock-down,” she said. “We have done it in a more strategic way, or we’ve tried to do it in a very thoughtful and purposeful way rather than having blanket restrictions on certain things.”
Henry added we have seen in our communities extraordinary community goodwill, compassion, and care.
“And that is what will get us through these next few weeks,” she said. “Our cases are continuing to increase, we know that. We know that people who have been exposed in the last two weeks are continuing to get sick and these measures that we are doing now are designed to try and prevent those transmissions from those people to the next generation. But any severe outbreak or cluster of cases is going to tip the scales for us and we are at that very critical point right now, we need to continue this action together.”
As of March 28, Health Minister Adrian Dix said 4,295 hospital beds across B.C. are vacant.
Of the patients hospitalized, Dix said 6 cases are in the Interior Health Authority and 2 in Northern Health.