Morning News Update for April 15, 2020
Health Minister Adrian Dix and Dr. Bonnie Henry and. 📷: Province of British Columbia (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
NANAIMO —New numbers on COVID-19 show 44 new cases in BC over the past 24 hours, including three in the Island Health region, bringing the total here to 92, and province-wide to 1561.
The daily death count from the virus continues to rise, with three more fatalities reported since Tuesday, including the first death in the Interior Health region. The provincial health officer says that the case was a man in his 60s, with an underlying health condition. Dr. Bonnie Henry says the man had been recovering at home but died shortly after being admitted to hospital. Meanwhile, the Island Health Authority has launched an intensive at-home monitoring program to ensure people suffering from COVID-19 don't take a sudden turn for the worse. Those being monitored include people who live alone, who are immunocompromised, over the age of 60 and anyone with underlying health conditions such as heart or lung disease, diabetes or hypertension. Patients will be given equipment to monitor their temperatures and oxygen saturation levels. Registered nurses will connect with them several times a day, via telephone. Dr. Henry says health researchers are discovering that some people recovering from COVID-19 can go downhill quickly at the 5 to 7-day mark.
Local citizens will have a chance to ask questions of their regional health authority officials and political representatives, in a series of virtual town hall meetings. BC's Minister of Health says the first will take place this Friday in the Vancouver Health Region. Adrian Dix says he'll be announcing meetings for other health regions in the coming days.
The Premier says he's pleased with what has been happening at border crossings since new measures were put into place last Friday. All travellers returning to Canada must self-isolate for 14 days, but travellers returning to BC must also provide self-isolation plans. John Horgan says 4700 travellers have returned to BC since last Friday, and only 84 of them have been forced into federally supervised quarantine because they had inadequate plans for isolation. On Monday, the federal government expanded the isolation plan requirement to include all Canadian airports and border crossings.
The time has changed for the free live stream concert on Thursday that will feature musicians from around BC The concert will start a little earlier, at 4 pm. The lineup includes Kym Gouchie, Alex Cuba Desirée Dawson and Dan Mangan. It's the first in a series being put together by the province, to provide grants to musicians and free music to housebound citizens. You can catch the live stream on the provincial government's Facebook page or at the ShowCase BC website.
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