100 People Have Officially Recovered From COVID-19 In BC

In the middle of all the bad news coming from novel coronavirus, something good arrived out of it. Exactly 100 people recovered in B.C. from COVID-19 and are now free to leave their homes. This followed a large arrival of testing supplies to the province.

In a conference Monday morning, March 23, B.C.'s top doctor Dr. Bonnie Henry officially declared that 94 people have recovered from the virus, after a recent batch of testing.

Before this point, only six were labelled as recovered by the BCCDC.

The sudden jump in recoveries came after a new shipment of testing supplies arrived in the province. This let B.C. ramp up their testing efforts and begin confirming recoveries of those recovered and stuck at home.

In the same conference, B.C. also announced 48 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total up to 472 in the province.

"We are showing a number of positives every day," said Henry.

Over the past few days, people in B.C. were seen not following social distancing guidelines and gathering on beaches and in parks. Henry said that, while some were caught in gatherings, most people were complying.

She reminded that you can go outside, but you should either go by yourself or with the people you live with. But, of course, if you're sick you need to stay home.

"If you're sick, no matter who you are, you have to stay home," said B.C. health minister Adrian Dix.

The recently declared cases are part of a huge increase in COVID-19 cases in the province. In just six days, the total number of cases in the province has more than doubled.

However, the province has been ramping up response; in Vancouver, shortly after declaring a public health emergency, they shut down dine-ins in restaurants, forcing still-open restaurants to do delivery or take-out only.

Officials have asked people to stay at home as much as possible and the advice is very much the same: wash your hands, stay inside, and if you are outside to maintain social distancing.

During the conference, Henry also announced three new deaths in the province, bringing the total to 13. One was in the Lynn Valley Care Centre, which had experienced several deaths from COVID-19 so far.