The Island has not seen a new case of COVID-19 in over three weeks as the region remained at 127 during Thursday's announcement from Dr. Bonnie Henry. (Government of BC)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

NO NEW CASES

Farmers market restrictions relaxed, no new COVID-19 cases on Vancouver Island

May 28, 2020 | 3:30 PM

NANAIMO — The Island Health region has been without a new, active case of COVID-19 in over three weeks.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry confirmed none of the nine new cases of the novel coronavirus announced on Thursday, May 28 are on Vancouver Island.

Across B.C., 241 active cases remain with 33 patients currently in hospital, including the Island’s lone case. Slightly more than 2,150 people have fully recovered.

Dr. Henry amended a public health order on Thursday pertaining to farmers markets. The sale of merchandise and non-food items, as well as eating at tables, is now allowed.

She said the focus of public health is to track new community cases as the province proceeds with phase two of its restart plan.

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“We are watching for new cases closely and assessing our process week by week. We’re doing that through our testing, contact tracing making sure we’re managing all the outbreaks and cases,” Dr. Henry said.

The next major milestone for the province comes on Monday, June 1 when schools are due to re-open to students on a voluntary, part-time basis.

A move to phase three could come later in the month.

“We will have a good understanding of how we’re doing around mid-June when we’ve had these couple of incubation periods. We’ll have the data we need to determine our timing for further actions,” Dr. Henry said.

A new outbreak was announced in a long term care facility in the Fraser Health region, while the outbreak at the Mission federal correctional facility was declared over after no new cases for two incubation periods.

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