10 new COVID-19 cases have been reported across B.C., with 183 active cases remaining as of Tuesday, June 9th.
According to Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.’s provincial health officer, 2,319 people have fully recovered out of the province’s 2,669 total cases.
As well no changes have been reported in the Interior Health region, remaining at 195.
According to Dr. Henry, no new deaths have been attributed to the virus for the fourth day straight. So far, COVID-19 has caused the deaths of 167 British Columbians.
Henry expressed her gratitude for the statistics that have been shown in recent weeks, with a comparatively small number of new cases. However, Henry urges that it does not mean efforts from public officials and British Columbians should be let up.
“We have had a number of small community outbreaks, but we are at the point where we are able to find these quickly. That speaks to the work we are all doing to follow the safe distancing measures,” said Henry. “I want everyone to understand that the COVID-19 pandemic that’s going on all around us is far from over. In B.C., we continue to have small numbers of cases, but across Canada and around the world, it is still a major problem.”
Henry added that many regions are seeing a resurgence in cases, as economies return to business. As well, Henry said that Monday was the single highest day for new cases around the world since the pandemic began, adding more than 136,000 infections in one day.
Restrictions at the U.S. border are set to be eased to allow Canadian families to reunite, and international flights have been increasing as well.
“These changes are not unexpected, and they are important in getting our social fabric back together. We also know that many businesses and schools in B.C. and across the country have reopened. Our goal needs to be to learn to live safely with this virus,” said Henry.
Henry added that watching what is happening locally and around the world is important in learning to live with COVID-19.
“Our path forward is to minimize, manage and modify as we need. That means we all need to continue to take the actions we have been doing to minimize our number of close contacts and reduce the cases we see in the community. We need to manage those clusters and outbreaks with rapid contact tracing and making sure that we at public health have the resources we need to stop outbreaks from expanding rapidly. And we need to modify the measures that we are all following as we need to, given the situation we’re facing here,” explained Henry.