Province announces 18 new cases of COVID-19 and three new deaths

(Files by Catherine Garrett-MyPGNow)

There have been no new cases of COVID-19 in Northern Health for just over four weeks.

Interior Health also didn’t have any new cases over the past 24 hours.

BC Health Officials did identify an additional 18 infections province-wide for a total of 3,008 since the pandemic began.

There are 162 active cases of COVID-19 in the province and 2,660 people who tested positive have recovered, keeping the recovery rate steady at 88 percent.

Of the active cases, 17 are in hospital and three in intensive care.

Meanwhile, there have been three new deaths attributed to the virus in the Vancouver Coastal Health region for a total of 186.

There have been no new healthcare or community-related outbreaks, and the outbreak at the Tabor Home has now been declared over.

In total, two long-term care or assisted-living facilities and one acute-care facility have active outbreaks.

There has also been a community exposure event at the No. 5 Orange nightclub in Vancouver.

Those who were in attendance on Canada Day are asked to monitor for symptoms.

“As we have seen in many other locations around the world, one slip can quickly cause a surge in new cases. We have also seen here in B.C. that our foundational rules for safe social interactions help to protect all of us,” said Provincial Health Officer Doctor Bonnie Henry.

“This summer, we can travel within our province, we can enjoy many activities and we can spend time with friends and family. And we can do this safely by all of us doing our part to keep our curve flat.”

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 1,018 cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 1,589 in the Fraser Health region, 133 in the Island Health region, 203 in the Interior Health region and 65 in the Northern Health region.