43 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed during the provinces daily briefing on Tuesday (Mar31), including one new case in Northern Health.
There are now 15 cases in Northern Health with 1,013 cases across the province.
Five additional deaths were also reported with four in the Vancouver Coastal Health and one in Fraser Health.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry mentioned the province’s first outbreak due to community transmission. The outbreak is in housing for temporary foreign workings at an agricultural business in West Kelowna.
“This business has been closed to customers. Interior Health became aware of a number of the workers there with respiratory illness and a number of them have now tested positive for COVID-19,” she said.
Dr. Henry also added if measures and orders are not being followed that the health authorities can call in a peace officer but it is a last resort.
Minister of Health, Adrian Dix also mentioned the hospital care numbers.
There are currently 128 people in the hospital, with 5 in Northern Health.
He added the number of people who are in Intensive Care remains stable.
“We have as of today 4,171 empty beds in our acute care hospitals in BC that is slightly less than yesterday, those numbers I expect to bounce around a little bit now,” he said,
Dix also reminded patients who had surgeries and procedures scheduled and have been canceled that they have not been forgotten about.