B.C. now has a recorded total of 1,724 COVID-19 cases.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Minister of Health Adrian Dix announced today (April 21) there were 25 new test positive cases in the past 24 hours.
Northern Health now has 40 total test-positive cases of COVID-19, including one new case in the last 24 hours.
There are 707 cases in Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), 715 in Fraser Health, 109 on Vancouver Island and 153 in Interior Health.
B.C. #COVID19 update as per Dr. Henry (Tues, April 201:
— jess fedigan (@jj_fedigan) April 21, 2020
- 25 new cases
- 1,724 new total
- One new case Northern Health, total now 40#COVIDー19 #COVID19BC #drbonniehenry #BC #virus #update #coronavirus #outbreak #WHO @PGMatters
There are no new outbreaks in long-term care facilities. Currently, there are 20 active outbreaks in facilities and one acute care unit in the Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health regions, with 319 individual cases are associated with these outbreaks.
There are currently 109 people in the hospital and 51 in ICU across the province while 1,041 have recovered.
There has been one new death for a new B.C. total of 87.
"I understand that this is not easy, but we can look to the future knowing we are getting through this together, that it is not forever but we must act today." #COVIDー19 #COVID19BC #drbonniehenry #BC #virus #update #coronavirus #outbreak #WHO @PGMatters
— jess fedigan (@jj_fedigan) April 21, 2020
The outbreak at the Mission federal correctional institute in the Fraser Valley continues to grow. The institute now has 76 people who have tested positive, including 65 inmates and 11 staff.
Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) Public Health has declared an outbreak of COVID-19 among staff working at United Poultry Company Ltd., a chicken processing plant located at 534 East Cordova St., Vancouver. To date, 28 employees of the facility have tested positive for COVID-19. All employees at the facility are being managed as either COVID-19 cases or close contacts and have been told to self-isolate.
Vancouver Coastal Health says it first became aware of a potential outbreak after receiving a positive lab test on Sunday, April 19, from an employee of the plant. In the course of its investigation, a VCH Public Health team attended the processing plant on Monday, April 20 and tested 71 staff who were physically present, resulting in 27 additional positive cases of COVID-19, which brings the total to 28 cases to date. The plant was closed that day.
According to Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), there is no evidence to suggest that food is a likely source or route of transmission for the virus. At this time, there have been no reported cases of food or food packaging being associated with the transmission of COVID-19. Therefore, no recall of chicken products distributed from this plant is required.
"I do want to say that I know that there will be concerns about the products that have come out of this," Henry said. "We don't have any evidence that COVID-19 can be spread from meat or products like that."
"It's very important that people maintain the important hygiene practices, that you are mindful of cross-contamination and making sure poultry is cooked appropriately and making sure you clean surfaces after handling raw poultry."
- with files from Elana Shepert, Vancouver Is Awesome
