B.C. recorded 30 additional cases of COVID-19 on July 21, continuing a trend of higher infection related to summer activities.
There have been no new health care facility outbreaks and no new deaths in the past 24 hours, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said.
“The recent community cases have meant that some restaurants, wineries and recreational facilities in the Okanagan and Lower Mainland have been notified of a potential exposure with some employees, or have had employees who are confirmed positive for COVID-19,”
Henry and B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix said in a statement. “We commend the businesses who have proactively notified the public and temporarily closed for additional cleaning.”
Henry and Dix have reinforced their warnings against gathering in groups after the past three days, where new positive tests and identified cases rose to more than 30 per day.
“I’m concerned when there are 10 cases,” Dix said. “I’m concerned when there are 15 cases, so when there’s an average of 34 over three days, it absolutely has my attention, Dr. Henry’s attention, all of our attention.”
Dix said there are adjustments coming to public health advice and orders as a result of increases such as has been seen in Kelowna in recent days.
“We also have to acknowledge that there were unorganized circumstances that were involved in this outbreak in Kelowna, and we have to take responsibility for those. We have to work with the owners of certain businesses to improve the circumstances in those businesses.”
RELATED: B.C. catching up on scheduled surgery backlog
RELATED: More than 60 cases related to Kelowna exposure
Henry said this week’s analysis of cases shows the need to keep the average number of other people infected by a new case below one.
“We do that effectively by keeping our contacts smaller,” Henry said in releasing the latest modelling July 20. “We know now that we’re travelling more, we’re going to work, we’re going into different settings, so we are having contact with more people.”
@tomfletcherbctfletcher@blackpress.caLike us on Facebook and follow us on <a href=
“http://twitter.com/BlackPressMedia” target=”_blank”>Twitter.
