VICTORIA - 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 20 new cases, for a total of 3,028 cases in British Columbia.
"There are 175 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and 2,667 people who tested positive have recovered.
"Of the total COVID-19 cases, 17 individuals are hospitalized, four 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 982 cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 1,596 in the Fraser Health region, 133 in the Island Health region, 201 in the Interior Health region and 65 in the Northern Health region.
"Starting today, individuals whose primary residence is outside of Canada will be reported separately. As of today, that total is 51 cases.
"There have been no new COVID-19 related deaths, 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. 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.
"Following confirmation of a second COVID-19 case, Vancouver Coastal public health teams have expanded their alert for anyone who may have been at the No. 5 Orange nightclub on July 1, to include July 3, 4 and 7.
"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.
"British Columbians have flattened the COVID-19 curve. Now, we need to keep the virus low and slow. As we continue to have the virus in our communities, we need to minimize the number of cases, manage new cases quickly and modify our activities as needed.
"Every day, we learn more about COVID-19 and the precautions we can all take to protect our province and ourselves.
"What we know is that the more layers of protection we use, the safer we will be.
"As our understanding grows, we will continue to adjust our guidelines to address vulnerabilities and adopt new tools and technologies as they become available.
"The things we can do to help with contact tracing are to pause and complete our own personal risk assessment when planning activities, take note of where we go and who we see each day, and always follow our foundational rules for safe social interactions.
"We all have a role to play in contact tracing to minimize and manage new cases in B.C. The efforts we make help our front-line public health teams and, in turn, help to protect all of us. Let's continue to be united in our efforts while staying apart."