Dr. Bonnie Henry, April 21

Image Credit: FACEBOOK/BC Government

B.C. had 58 new cases overnight, raising the total since the pandemic began to 5,848, health officials say.

There are 1,124 active cases of COVID-19 in the province and 2,761 people who are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases. To date, there are 4,505 people who tested positive and recovered.

There are also 31 people in the hospital, and 10 in intensive care. There was one more COVID-19 death overnight, raising the provincial death toll to 209.

"As we transition to the next phase of our COVID-19 pandemic in B.C. and prepare for the respiratory season ahead, it is time for all of us to regroup and refocus our efforts to keep the number of new cases low and slow," provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and health minister Adrian Dix said in a joint statement.

They added as British Columbians do their part, scientists throughout the province are also actively working on the latest COVID-19 research.

"The B.C. COVID-19 Research and Collaboration Symposium, a virtual collaboration of B.C.'s academic health sciences network, involving public health, epidemiology, social science and education researchers from all around B.C., began today," Dix and Henry said in the release. "The symposium is focused on furthering our understanding of the impacts of COVID-19 and the related public health measures."

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 1,922 cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 3,072 in the Fraser Health region, 175 in the Island Health region, 440 in the Interior Health region, 160 in the Northern Health region and 79 cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

There have been no new health care facility outbreaks. In total, eight long-term care or assisted-living facilities and two acute-care facilities have active outbreaks.

There have been no new community outbreaks, although there continue to be community exposure events.

The Northern Health region, the First Nations Health Authority and the Nisga'a Valley Health Authority have issued a joint alert for anyone in the Nass Valley who may have attended recent gatherings between Aug. 21 and 25. Any gathering attendees are asked to contact the Nisga'a Valley clinic and if symptoms develop, to immediately self-isolate.

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