British Columbia’s confirmed COVID-19 infections have gone up by 77 as of Friday, March 20th, bringing the total number of cases to 348 province-wide, with 19 confirmed in the Interior Health region.
According to B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix, the number of tests sits at 17,912 as of Friday.
Dr. Bonnie Henry, Provincial Health Officer, added to her earlier order of shutting down all bars and clubs, extending the mandatory closure to restaurants, aside from delivery and take-out services.
“We need to make sure that there are appropriate precautions that are taken in certain settings to make sure that we are not allowing settings that allow for the transmission of this virus,” said Henry. “We put in some guidance around being able to maintain a distance within the restaurants. It is becoming obvious to us as it has to many of the municipalities that this is a very challenging thing to do.”
Henry added that other businesses that can maintain the social distancing guidelines should stay open to support the community.
Henry also dispelled worries of potential shortages surrounding medical supplies.
“We have been working on this across the province and across the country. We do have the supplies we need right now, and we’re committed to doing everything that we can to make sure that we continue to have what we need to best protect everybody in our health care system,” said Dr. Henry.
The Province has a COVID-19 self-assessment tool, which can be found here.
*** Story by Ryley McCormack ***