Vancouver Island reported 11 new cases of COVID-19 over the weekend, including the first school exposure in the health region, which was identified at a Port Alberni high school.
“Most of them are individual cases in a number of different communities on the island and Island Health is following up with individuals,” said Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer.
There were 358 new cases identified across the province this weekend — eight of which were epi-linked. There are currently 3,010 people under active public health monitoring and 1,353 active cases in B.C.
There were four additional deaths reported in the province. One new community outbreak was reported at Valhalla Distributions in Delta. In addition, there were three new outbreaks in healthcare facilities; Langley Lodge, Whiterock Senior’s Village and Chartwell Crescent Gardens. All of these are in the Fraser Health region and were each a single case in a healthcare worker.
Henry said she provided an update on modelling for the novel coronavirus and each new case is transmitting to fewer than one person.
“What we are not seeing is schools amplifying transmission in the community. Our testing rate however have gone up, particularly for young students,” she said.
She said some new cases continue to be travel-related and the average age of people being infected is lower than at the start of the pandemic. Over the weekend there were 33,409 tests done — Henry said the tests found a positivity rate of 1.04 per cent.
“We are flattening our curve and it is the work of all of us — the actions that we are taking as individuals and as communities that is making this difference and it is important for our health of our communities that we continue to do this,” she said.
“We are having connections in our communities, we are opening schools, people are going back to work, but we are having safe connections.”
