Dr. Bonnie Henry speaks from the press theatre in the Parliament Building in Victoria, delivering her daily COVID-19 update. (BC Government Flickr)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

covid-19 cases

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 grow slightly on Vancouver Island, hospitalizations decrease

Apr 8, 2020 | 3:10 PM

NANAIMO — The province has reported two additional cases of COVID-19 on Vancouver Island.

Dr. Bonnie Henry confirmed the additional positive test results in the Island Health region on Wednesday, April 8, bringing the total on Vancouver Island to 81.

Previous increases in the region had been minor with no cases confirmed in a 24 hour period three times in the ten days.

Across B.C., 45 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been documented for a total of 1336. Of those total cases, 838 had fully recovered and been released from their isolation.

During the daily briefing, Dr. Henry spoke again about the need to limit non-essential travel ahead of the Easter long weekend and protect the ‘firewall’ in place around B.C.

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She also addressed Premier John Horgan’s message from an earlier press briefing where he announced an enhanced relationship with Canada Border Services to monitor for potential COVID-19 risks arriving from overseas.

“People who come back from travel overseas who have a risk of being exposed to COVID-19 because of those travels are able to join our firewall to make sure they have the means to do what they need to do, self-isolate for 14 days when they come back to best protect themselves, their families and their community,” Dr. Henry said.

Also addressed was the testing strategy employed by the province to detect outbreaks in care facilities and the community at large.

Dr. Henry said the number of tests conducted has reduced despite capacity to test going up.

“We have changed our strategy as we’ve seen the numbers decreasing in the populations we’ve been targetting,” Dr. Henry said. “We’re starting to increase the number of people we’re testing in the community and for physicians to be able to test more broadly as well.”

Dr. Henry noted as influenza leaves for the year, the likelihood of respiratory illness being COVID-19 goes up.

The province also reported five additional deaths over the last 24 hours related to the virus, bringing the total number of people who have lost their lives to COVID-19 to 48.

On a positive note, Dr. Henry noted the number of people hospitalized (135) and in intensive care (61) were both down over the last 24 hours.

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