 Good afternoon. I'm Adrian Dix, BC Minister of Health beside me is our provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry We're honored to be here on the territories of the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations of the Kwonga speaking peoples and Tomorrow will be Briefing from here at 3 o'clock. It'll just be tomorrow. Dr. Henry on Thursday will be Dr. Henry and I and then will continue to Be briefing at the same time at 3 o'clock the rest of the week all of that from here in Victoria In order to limit the overall amount of travel that we're all doing. That's a new necessity I want to thank our ASL interpreters Nigel Howard and the whole team that's been involved in that who have done an extraordinary job and With that I'd like to introduce Dr. Henry for today's update Thank you and good afternoon For today's updates We're catching up a little bit because we had an early morning or earlier morning Briefing yesterday, so I will be giving you reporting on the last two 24-hour periods from Sunday afternoon until this morning to start off with then so The total number of new cases that we've had in that period of time is 145 so that was 67 new cases on March 23rd and In the last 24 hours through to this morning another 78 positives So our total now in British Columbia of test positive cases is 617 and I will say that we've been through the backlog of testing and we'll talk about I'll talk a little bit about testing again in a minute so for our 617 test positive cases 330 of those are in Vancouver Coastal Health 194 in Fraser Health 44 now on Vancouver Island Health Authority area 41 in Interior Health and nine in the north We have as well two additional Long-term care residential care homes that are involved in in outbreaks in the lower mainland Of those we now have the Lynn Valley Care Center has now 42 residents and 21 staff Affected Holly burn remains with just the single resident and staff We've had an increase as well at the Herald Park Lodge with 15 residents and 25 staff people testing positive there and Fraser Health we have Delta view and Dufferin at care centers both of whom are both of which just have a single case and in the German Canadian house in Vancouver Coastal Health there's Continues to be a single staff member Affected in that outbreak so the two new facilities are Little Mountain Place residential care in Vancouver Coastal Health and Evergreen Heights in Fraser Health and in both those cases a single Person a staff person and a resident in the case of Evergreen Heights have tested positive and The outbreak protocols are being implemented at both those facilities and continue at the other Long-term care and assisted living facilities where we have identified outbreaks and Along that we've been talking about some of the challenges about staff working at multiple places and this is a Reflection of that fact and we are doing a concerted effort Across the province to now sort that out so that we can assign people to a specific Long-term care home particularly through this outbreak and that is through this pandemic and that is something that is being Undertaken as an urgent issue in the last couple of days and we expect to have that worked out by the end of the week I do also want to talk update you on the numbers of people who have been hospitalized and currently we have 59 Cases hospitalized across the province and 23 of whom are in intensive care unit We do not have any additional deaths to report So we remain at 13 today and I'll talk about that in a minute But really the good news is we we now have 173 people who have fully recovered from COVID-19 So that's 28% of our total cases and I think that's a really positive thing It shows us that most people particularly young healthy people who have milder illness are able to Be managed at home and are recovering from this and the other Positive thing around that is that we're learning from around the world that once you've recovered from this You have immunity for a period of time at least for the next few weeks to months, which is really helpful I think in and encouraging people and supporting people to be able to if you're a health care worker To safely work with cases of COVID-19 Here in BC when we talk about the numbers of deaths we've had I know there's been a lot of comments kind of come into me that our death rate is very high and that means that we're on a Trajectory that's very similar to countries like our areas of the world like northern Italy and others And I just want to put that in a little bit of context Most of our deaths tragically have been related to the one long-term care home The Lynn Valley care home where the outbreak had been going on for some time before we were able to get a handle on it So ten people ten of the residents of that facility have died in this outbreak and that really shows When we look at the overall numbers and the people who have died from this We consider that as one event rather than ten individual events that reflect a Number of other cases in the community It also reinforces the importance of all the work that we need to do to protect our elders and those most vulnerable Particularly in our long-term care and assisted living facilities around the province. I Have also heard some media reports, and I know there's been quite a lot about this recently about a dentist and who had attended the Pacific Dental Conference who recently passed away that person was known to public health and was Associated with the the Pacific Dental Conference The public health investigation had been done So we the contacts of that person any close contacts were identified and were put into isolation and the Anybody who was at risk from exposure to this individual was identified It is tragic that he passed away, and I understand the coroner is investigating and we do not have Any more information at the moment about his death But in the circumstances once the circumstances are confirmed I'll be able to share that with you. I Will share as well that you know this conference is a Major source of some of the infections that we've been seeing in BC There are now up to 32 people that we can link directly or indirectly to that conference All of those people attending the conference were Notified of a positive case who was there and asked to self-isolate And then when we soon as we realized that there was additional people who were associated with that conference coming down with the disease We advised them all everybody who had attended to self isolate not just to monitor themselves for symptoms And a number of people have come forward since then because of that I will also say that I have provided advice to all of the regulatory colleges about The actions that their members should be taking in the community right now to reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19 in our community settings. So that includes chiropractors dentists Physicians nurses Anybody who works in our community massage therapists who fall under the regulatory framework of the health the regulated regulated health professions act and that advice is to Minimize any physical contact and to reduce your practice to emergency Services only and there's some more details about that that we can provide. I Will note that the dental college Soon after the conference and the notification that we gave for people to self isolate The dental college had also provided advice to dentists that they should cease all but emergency dental services in the community Given the pandemic and I think in some people's mind those two messages became Confusing so in order to ensure that that's very clear for people who are practicing in the community I have drafted. I sent a letter out to all of the colleges about the expectations that we have about safe practice At this point in time I talked a little bit about our strategy and our strategy around testing So we have a very worked out public health strategy for why we do testing in a certain way How we've changed our testing and it really has been looking at what is happening around the world understanding and being informed by how things are being done in other countries and Being nimble in our response so to be clear we are absolutely testing and Contact tracing anybody for whom we don't know the source of their infection and that's the important thing We talk a lot I talked many times about the fact that we know the source of infection for people who are coming in from outside of Canada and Since we had the travel advisory in place and since we put the order that everybody who's come in from outside of Canada Must self isolate for 14 days If we if they do become sick We know the source of their infection and we can we don't need to have them go out of their house to go Some place to be tested may be exposing other people we Assume that they have this disease and we manage them accordingly and we make sure that they don't have contacts and pass it on to others So that's how we break those chains of transmission and that allows us to focus on the community Cases where we do not know the source of infection. So as you will know, we've done almost 30,000 tests. We've got our backlog where we had a lot of testing being done Without a strategy, we've got that all through and that's reflected in the numbers that you've seen yesterday and today But now this allows us to continue to widely test Anybody for whom we don't have an idea where they came in contact with this So that's community cases that are involved with a cluster or an outbreak or Community cases that have arisen Is part of our surveillance? It also means that we can aggressively test Healthcare workers in our health system as well as the long-term care Residents and health care workers so that we can manage outbreaks and protect our health care system So that is the change in the strategy that we've had around testing It's based on what they're doing in other countries and when we talk about test test test The focus is on making sure that we can identify where cases are coming up where we don't have a known source And that's what we're focusing on right now And finally, you know This is a reflection of the fact that we are seeing Escalating numbers across British Columbia We know that there is circulation and there is risk across the province right now The majority of our cases are in the lower mainland But no community in this province is immune and we know this virus can spread with people having very minimal symptoms And that is our rationale for making sure that we all take these physical Distancing measures that we've been talking about in the last little while The way we break the chains of transmission are making sure that we're not close enough that this virus can spread between people So I you know We're doing everything we can right now and we need you to do the same as well So we we will get through this You know none of us needs to get this virus and that's where these physical distancing is so important and Extra important is not only do we not need to get it We don't need to bring it home and give it to our parents or grandparents or other people in our family in our community Who may have serious illness? From this virus so physical distance is incredibly important right now for all of us And I know most people are doing their very best at this and we can see that in our community right now But the other part of it is ensuring that we maintain our social connections And that is what it's going to get us through this So I encourage everybody to take those virtual connections with your family with older people in your community Don't have that physical contact, but maintain those social connections that will protect our elders our seniors That will protect our health care system and that will get us through the next few weeks Thank You dr. Henry and Dr. Henry is noted today's report shows an escalating number of confirmed cases in British Columbia And an escalating number of cases of people currently in a hospital currently in ICU And the seriousness with which the struggle the British Columbia is facing That's 617 cases of course and dr. Henry has Lated out by health authority but it what it shows is that no part of our province is immune and That everyone everyone has to take the steps that dr. Henry has recommended to to prepare and to avoid For the spread of COVID-19. I wanted to bring you up to date on on progress with respect to occupancy in BC hospitals and acute care hospitals in BC We have added more now Available beds that are available due to our efforts to both move people out of hospital who do not need to be there And so they're now 6,866 available beds that our current occupancy is about 66% or two and three beds Currently filled and that compares to what is ordinarily the case which is about a hundred and three point five percent and currently in terms of our critical care occupancy That rate is fifty five point three percent across BC hospitals at the present time Which is roughly what it was yesterday and of course less than it was last week and at any time before that I think that reflects as I noted yesterday and dr. Henry has noted the seriousness of the situation the preparation is being made in our acute care hospitals and and We continue to do that work every day in order to both prepare our acute care hospitals in terms of resources and also to prepare Our staff in terms of the challenging days to come Dr. Henry is reflected. I think on the extraordinary work of the BC CDC and I just wanted to Reflect on this a bit myself that 3500 tests is what we're doing every day, which is an extraordinary increase that reflects the work and the leadership of the BC CDC which has been unbelievably valuable to all British Columbians in dealing with these issues. It's it's Really courageous and heroic work by people who have given everything they have to give us the means to Deal with COVID-19 and with them partners who are processing tests Around the province such as life labs and then partners through the health authorities who have been assisting with assisting with that as well This allows us to expand our testing capacity and to do and to follow the direction the science-based direction of dr. Henry I wanted to also acknowledge the extraordinary work that's taking place in long-term care led by those that represent management long-term care and also Unions in long-term care in particular the hospital employees union and others who've done just remarkable things And are doing remarkable things to in effect Reorganize the way significant parts of long-term care have been organized for some time in order to protect patients It's extraordinary work. They've been all in on it And we very much appreciate their work and the work of the BC and you and the HSA Doctors of BC and resident doctors of BC and other health professions such as Pharmacists and midwives who plates who are every day stepping up to provide care and service And we are so appreciative and so respectful. We launched an app yesterday that has had so far about 20,000 downloads, which is a significant Success, we're seeing about a thousand downloads Each hour today and encourage people to check out check out that app. We received some questions Through social media and other areas about Advertising so I wanted to say a few things about that that the priority is to ensure that people have information They need during the COVID-19 pandemic It's why we do daily briefings and many media interviews and share our messages extensively in multiple languages around BC as you know buying Advertising requires booking weeks or months in advance and since the declaration of the pandemic our crown corporations and government have been Reviewing the ads they have in market and are pulling many of them ICBC For example is proactively pulled its campaign on the changes to make ICBC more affordable And our focus is on health information our focus is on COVID-19 And you will see that in the days to come reflected in new advertising, but I just wanted to to make that point Finally, I just wanted to say that We spoke yesterday about how this is going to be a struggle for for weeks and for months Head of us that it's not going to end anytime soon There's not a quick fix although the measures. We're taking now the measures. We are all taking now Will play a significant role in the outcome and why we have to That continue 100% of our effort. There is no chance. We'll beat this if we leave The work to others that each of us doesn't play our role We need everyone to the care that we must take care all of us the number of cases We've been seeing will continue to rise it will the next few weeks will be very very difficult It'll be some time before we see the change we are all working towards but what happens today matters in that change What matters today matters in April and in the months that follow that and we know We must make the effort now so that those efforts will pay off Defeating this virus demands that we stay physically apart from each other The battle that we need to wage to defeat the virus Demands that we come closer together as a community and I see that happening every day in the community I live in and across BC It's essential. We continue to work together that we trust one another that we rely on one another It's why we brief and we get pride information every day to British Columbians about what's going on So they understand and people understand what's going on We must be united because we all have a duty to deliver What we need to deliver is what Dr. Henry has put forward to you today and in previous days 100% compliance 100% of us 100% of the time and in our fight against COVID-19 Today and all days ahead. We must continue to be 100% all-in Today we are giving you updates on the case on two 24 hours. The 22nd for March 23rd and the 23rd March at 14 o'clock Today during the first period of declaration until March 23 we have We have seen 67 new cases from a total of 535 cases in British Columbia During the last 24 hours we have 78 new cases for a total of 617 cases in British Columbia. It's done in two days after our last our last presentation 145 new cases Among the new cases, a patient is a health worker at a health care in the residence of the little mountain place in the health director of Vancouver Coastal Each health director now accounts for patients who are suffering from COVID-19 these 330 at Vancouver Coastal 184 hours at Fraser 44 on Vancouver Island 41 inside and eight in the north The total has been 13 deaths from COVID-19 in British Columbia In addition to the total of COVID-19 cases 59 people are currently hospitalized so 23 are in intensive care and the other people who have been tested positive for COVID-19 are now at the home for isolation We are very happy to announce that 28% of the cases are now 163 people They are now in isolation Thank you and we'll take your questions now