 Good afternoon. I'm Adrian Dix, BC Minister of Health. To my right is Dr. Bonnie Henry, BC's Provincial Health Officer. This is our daily COVID-19 briefing. We're honored to be here on the territories of the Lekwungen speaking people, the Songhees, and the Esquimalt First Nations. As you know, tomorrow we'll be issuing a written statement at about three o'clock to give you the information of the day. And that Friday morning, and it'll be here at this podium at 11 a.m., but there will be a technical briefing for media before that, we'll be presenting an update to modeling that we've done about COVID-19 in British Columbia. And with that, I'm happy to introduce Dr. Henry. Thank you, and good afternoon. This is the update on COVID-19 in BC for today, April 15th. We have 44 new cases that have been diagnosed in the last day in BC, bringing our total of people with positive for COVID-19 in BC to 1,561. That includes 670 people in the Vancouver Coastal Health Region, 623 in the Fraser Health Region, 92 on Vancouver Island Health, 146 people in the Interior Health Region, and 30 people in the Northern Health Region. We have no new long-term care facility outbreaks, but there are ongoing outbreaks at 21 long-term care and assisted living facilities in Fraser Health in Vancouver Coastal, and currently we're up to 265 cases associated with those outbreaks. We also have an ongoing outbreak in a nursery in the Interior Health, and we have three additional cases who have tested positive in that outbreak, bringing the total number with test positive in that cluster to 26. We continue to have the single case at the Okanagan Correctional Facility, and ongoing management of that facility is going. As well, we are now up to 48 cases associated with the Mission Federal Correctional Facility in the Fraser Valley, including seven people from that facility who are hospitalized in hospital here in British Columbia. Of the cases we have, 131 people are hospitalized, and of those, 59 people are in critical care or ICU in the province. We have, unfortunately, another three deaths in the last day here in British Columbia to bring our total of people who have died from COVID-19 to 75. That includes for the first time a death in the Interior Health Region, a man in his 60s who had been in recovery at home. 955 people are now fully recovered from COVID-19 here in British Columbia. I want to talk a little bit about some of the work that we've been doing, the hard work we've been doing to ensure the needs of all communities across the province have been addressed when it comes to preparing for and being able to respond effectively to cases of COVID-19. We recognize and have recognized from the beginning that every community is unique, and they have different needs, both healthcare needs, essential service needs, and they require different levels of support. And particularly, our smaller communities and more remote and First Nations communities may have limited resources and services, and it makes it much more challenging to address COVID-19, both in preventing it from entering those communities and responding. We know this is especially great in some of our more remote and First Nations communities. One thing that we do all have in common across the province and has been driving our response to this pandemic is that we share our understanding and the value of our elders and seniors, and that is why we have been paying so much attention to what we can do to best protect them and to protect all of those who are more vulnerable to more severe illness around the province. So resources are being created to support communities around the province, provide them with the resources they need, and importantly, we talked about some of the testing strategies that we have, and we have been able to deploy testing to better support. Our communities are more remote and Indigenous communities around the province, and that's something that I think is going to be incredibly important for us to be able to detect cases early, to detect clusters of cases, and to appropriately and safely manage in these communities. One of the other things that has come to my attention in the last little while is that there have been concerns, and I've mentioned this before, that people are fearful of going into hospital or seeking medical care for the issues that they have that are not related to COVID-19, and part of that is the concerns that we have been putting in all of this preparation around being able to care for people who do have this disease. It is safe to go to the hospital, and I want to reassure people that if you have diagnostic tests that have been booked that you've been waiting for, it is safe to go for those. It is safe to call 911. If you need that urgent medical care, do not hesitate to call for help if you need it. As well, we want to make sure that we are doing our best to protect people in our community from all of the other issues that arise that may affect our health. In particular, I want to encourage people of young children, parents of young children, to make sure that they continue with their childhood immunization programs. These are critical programs that we are preserving within our public health communities to make sure that young children in particular receive their basic immunizations and their childhood immunizations. So please be reassured that these services are still available to you, and it is still incredibly important to protect our children from the other infectious diseases that we know can spread in our communities. Finally, we have been receiving, and I've been talking a lot about the importance of us being kind and supporting each other. We are in this together, and we are in the midst of it still. We'll be presenting some of the modeling about where we are in the midst of it and some of the thinking that we have about going forward. But we are not at the point yet where we can let up, and I know that is very challenging for people. And we've heard some anecdotes mostly of people getting frustrated and angry. And I think we have to realize that this is often a manifestation of anxiety and fear that we have, not knowing about the future, not knowing what's going to happen with our jobs, not knowing what's going to happen with our families, being affected by not being able to see our loved ones. And this is a time where we really need to stand together, to support each other, to respond to anger with kindness, to make sure that we can support each other as we go through the coming weeks and months, because we are all in this together. What we do today and what we do every day through this really matters. We are all making a difference, and we are getting through this together. We are supporting our healthcare workers, we're supporting people who are caring for this virus, and we need to continue to support each other in our communities to make it through this. We need to be kind and we need to be calm and to help each other and stay safe. Thank you very much, Dr. Henry, and I wanted to start by joining Dr. Henry in expressing our condolences to the families of those who have passed away from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours. One, as Dr. Henry has said in the Interior Health Authority, one in Vancouver Coastal Health and one in Fraser Health. These are significant losses. We understand families will be grieving, and I think they tell us in the most profound way possible why we do have to be kind and pulled together, because there are some people who are either directly or through a family member, or from taking care of someone associated with that grieving, and I want everybody to know that we not only extend our condolences, we both, Dr. Henry and I, reflect on it every single day before we come down here. The cost of this for many individuals who have lost loved ones so far. And I wanted to note that, as we do to talk about the acute care sector, 131 people in acute care hospitals today, of which 68 are in Fraser Health, 11 in Interior Health, nine on Vancouver Island, four in the Northern Health Authority, and 39 in Vancouver Coastal Health, that we have 4,632 vacant hospital beds that's a capacity level closer to 59%, close to 59%, and then in critically care units we have an occupancy rate of 46.3%. I wanted to add to the data I gave about surgeries yesterday that there was one data point missing from one health authority. In fact, we've completed in the period in question, which was March 16th, April 12th, 9,552 urgent and emergency surgeries, so urgent, elective and emergency surgery, and so that we've, well, we've cancelled many surgeries that are elective surgeries. They're continues to be worked on in our healthcare system. Equally, yesterday there were 3,595 emergency room visits across BC. This compares to 6,559 on March 9th, so it's significantly under, and it reinforces what Dr. Henry has just said to you, which statistically, which is that it is safe to go to the hospital and there will be people there to help you if you have conditions or need to either do a diagnostic test or receive care, emergency care in our healthcare system. So that's an important point to recognize. The work continues in long-term care and I just wanted to reach out to everyone again who works in long-term care. There were, as we've said, no further deaths in long-term care, but we continued to face significant issues around long-term care and not just issues around people with COVID-19. We understand, I think, very much the impact in a personal way, but also in looking at the changes that have been made to protect people. The consequences of that. People do pass away from things other than COVID-19 and long-term care, and one would hope that they would be surrounded, of course, in those times by family members, and that is not always possible now. And so we want everybody to understand that there is a cost to these measures. And while the measures, I think, are absolutely necessary and the evidence shows they're absolutely necessary and they're some of the strongest that have been taken anywhere, we understand with all measures that are taken to protect people that they are not without cost and we want to reach out, and I particularly want to reach out to all the families and people who have relatives, loved ones, friends in long-term care that we understand how difficult this time is. I also want to acknowledge all of the health sciences professionals that are working across the system. We think of respiratory therapists, but so many more across health sciences professionals who are doing remarkable work in supporting people both with COVID-19 and acute care and other patients in what is a very difficult time. I want to let people know over the next week there are going to be five virtual town halls, one in each health authority. They'll be hosted by members of the legislature from the NDP and from the opposition, each will have a co-host and each will involve with the CEOs of the health authorities and the medical officers of health. The first one will be Friday, April 17th in Vancouver Coastal Health and will involve Mary Akinhoozen, Dr. Patricia Daly, Bowen Ma, MLA, and John Yap, MLA, and there'll be more such town halls coming up and I just wanted to express my appreciation to my colleague in the legislature, Norm Letnick, whose idea this was originally and we've worked together on this idea. I think it's very important that people we have an opportunity and especially in regions for the people who are leading our efforts in these regions, the CEOs of health authorities and medical health officers to be able to answer directly questions that people in regions have. We also want to acknowledge the work that essential service providers have done to find new ways of delivering their services safely. As an example, financial institutions have made online and telephone services more available and we encourage you to make use of these virtual store fronts and while some transactions obviously require people to come in branch, we ask that everybody apply the same diligence as you would to trips to the grocery store and keep them to a minimum. And I also want to acknowledge all the people with disabilities in the province and so that they understand that services and supports will be there for them if they require acute care services related to COVID-19 that their concerns are of significant importance both to people who work with people with disabilities every day and to the health care system in what's a difficult time and that we are focused on their concerns and sometimes their circumstances which require special treatment. For example, the need to ensure in hospitals for people who have hearing or sight disabilities may have more need for support in hospital from people who are regularly there to support them and we are absolutely working on all of those questions. On Friday, we'll be presenting modeling and I wanted to say finally just a word about that we won't be doing a briefing tomorrow but we will be providing all of the information that you come to expect every day with respect to new cases but with respect to modeling I want to say this that what we're trying to do from the beginning is why we were the first province to present modeling why Dr. Henry and the Deputy Minister Stephen Brown gave a detailed technical briefing some weeks ago and why we're updating it now we want everyone to understand and see what we're seeing this is not a turning point day there isn't major changes coming out of what we do Friday it's just our continuing effort to ensure as I said that you see what we see and what we see is people around British Columbia who are taking part, who are participating who are all in, who are helping to bend the curve and now more than ever as we see I think some positive indications about that and some challenges you look at the mission institution you look at other circumstances around the province and you see what can happen in circumstances and in communities of people when COVID-19 is present so we have to continue to our work continue to be 100% all in but I want to acknowledge every person in the province who have been part of this effort that Dr. Henry and Mr. Brown and so many others have let to acknowledge that you when we do models and we present with the circumstance at RMBC we see your effort, your commitment, your work and yes your sacrifice and if anything we need to do as this is working to a degree is to continue to be 100% all in in this effort in British Columbia and I wanted to thank everybody out there for that . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .