The province announced 47 new cases of COVID-19 across B.C., however none were on Vancouver Island. (BC Government Flickr)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

NO INCREASE

‘We find their contacts, we can stop those chains of transmission:’ province confident of COVID course

Aug 6, 2020 | 3:39 PM

NANAIMO — Public health officials believe they’re on the right track in the fight against COVID-19.

A total of 47 new cases, including one epi-linked case, were announced by provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry on Thursday.

None were on Vancouver Island, leaving the Island Health region with four active cases and 146 total positive tests since the start of the pandemic in B.C. in March.

Dr. Henry spent time during her briefing on Thursday backing the measures B.C. has put in place to limit the spread of the virus.

She highlighted a relatively low volume of community transmission, thanks to quick work done by public health officials.

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“We have kept and continued to keep our community transmission in B.C. low, that is incredibly important,” Dr. Henry said. “Even with the numbers we have seen in the last week, obviously they’re higher than I would like to see, but we know where these transmission events are happening.”

The number of active cases has crept up over the past seven to 10 days. As of Thursday, 371 cases are considered active across B.C., an increase of over 100 from last week.

Dr. Henry added over 1,500 people in the province in all health areas, including Island Health, are self-isolating and being monitored by public health after potentially being exposed to COVID-19.

“We’ve started to see some increase in cases but we have put layers of protection in place and we have safely restarted our province is slow and thoughtful and measured way,” Dr. Henry said.

Public health continues to track a number of exposure events through the province, related to social gatherings and travel.

Some exposures have also been linked to businesses re-opening since June when heavy restrictions were lifted for restaurant and retailers.

“We have had some instances where we’ve had transmission in these businesses and we manage that,” Dr. Henry said. “When we find people early and we find their contacts, we can stop those chains of transmission.”

No new deaths as a result of COVID-19 were recorded for the sixth day in a row.

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