B.C. has reached 103 COVID-19 cases, and three more residents of a North Vancouver care home have died from the novel coronavirus.
The 30 additional cases are expected to increase as there is ongoing testing for people with symptoms in process, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said Monday.
All four B.C. deaths have been at the Lynn Valley Care Centre, where an outbreak was identified from care workers who are now in isolation. Only six of the current cases are being treated in hospital, with the rest in stable condition and being monitored at home, Henry said.
Some of the new cases are in the Island Health and Interior Health regions, in addition to Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal where the majority of cases have been identified. As of Monday, seven of the identified cases are on Vancouver Island, and two have been identified in Interior Health, which includes the Okanagan and Kootenay regions.
Health Min @adriandix calls on people to “fight” against spread of #coronavirus #bcleg pic.twitter.com/ObHMAOgr8I
— Tom Fletcher (@tomfletcherbc) March 16, 2020
Dix said pharmacists are being permitted to refill prescriptions without a doctor’s note, to free up doctors for patient treatment. Hospital protocols are also being changed to free up acute care beds for treatment of COVID-19 patients with severe response to the virus.
Henry said some of the new cases are people who attended the Pacific Dental Conference in Vancouver on March 6. Vancouver Coastal Health has sent letters to all participants in that conference, asking them to watch for signs of fever, cough, headache and shortness of breath that are typical of COVID-19 infection.
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