Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry confirmed 11 new cases of COVID-19 in the province on Saturday. (BC Government Flickr)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

NO ISLAND INCREASE

‘We are ready for this:’ B.C.’s COVID-19 numbers stay low ahead of school restart

May 30, 2020 | 1:27 PM

NANAIMO — The province is readying for its next, major milestone in the recovery from COVID-19.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry focused on Monday’s scheduled restart of in-class, voluntary schooling. She also announced 11 new cases of COVID-19 across B.C., but none on Vancouver Island.

Overall, 228 active cases of the virus remain in the province with one in the Island Health region. 35 patients are currently hospitalized including five in critical or intensive care.

Following the implementation of B.C.’s restart plan earlier in May, a return to school is seen as the next challenge in learning to live with COVID-19.

“We are ready for this and we are re-opening schools because we believe it is safe to do so,” Dr. Henry said. “We’ve learned a lot about COVID-19, where the greatest risks are and the measures we can take to protect ourselves.”

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Dr. Henry added continuing to use safety measures such as good hygiene and physical distancing will be crucial in keeping case volume down as more people return to normal life.

The introduction of in-class schooling was purposely delayed for a few weeks after B.C.’s restart plan was implemented after the Victoria Day long weekend.

“We purposely timed the re-opening of schools to be sure we had a period of time of an incubation period to see if we were going to start seeing increased numbers of cases in our communities once we started our restart program,” Dr. Henry said. “If we had seen an increase, we would have postponed the start of school.”

For the third time in a week, no new deaths were announced by the province from the previous 24 hour period.

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