Adrian Dix, Minister of Health, and Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.'s provincial health officer, have issued the following joint statement regarding updates on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) response in British Columbia:
"Today, we are announcing 18 new cases, for a total of 3,008 cases in British Columbia.
"There are 162 active cases of COVID-19 in the province and 2,660 people who tested positive have recovered.
"Of the total COVID-19 cases, 17 individuals are hospitalized, three of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation.
"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.
"There have been three new COVID-19 related deaths in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, for a total of 186 deaths in British Columbia. We offer our condolences to everyone who has lost their loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"There have been no new health-care facility outbreaks and the outbreak at Tabor Home has been declared over. In total, two long-term care or assisted-living facilities and one acute-care facility have active outbreaks.
"While there are no active community outbreaks in B.C., new cases and community exposure events continue to occur in the community.
"There has been a community exposure event at the No. 5 Orange nightclub in the Vancouver Coastal Health region. Public health teams have issued an alert for anyone who may have been at the premises on July 1.
"If you have been at a location with a community exposure event, monitor yourself for symptoms, limit your contact with others and contact 811 to arrange for testing if any symptoms develop.
"Contact tracing to contain the spread of COVID-19 requires all of our involvement to be successful.
"Public alerts and the temporary closure of businesses are some of the ways public heath teams are working to effectively manage COVID-19 in our communities.
"What each of us can do to support contact tracing activities is to complete our own personal risk assessment when deciding where to go and who to see.
"Fewer faces, bigger spaces is the safest approach, because we know crowded, closed spaces where people may be in close contact with each other are higher-risk environments for all of us and need to be avoided at this time.
"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.
"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."