Canada: British Columbia reports 6th COVID-19 case, 9th in country

By NewsDesk @infectiousdiseasenews

Officials in British Columbia reported on the sixth COVID-19 case in the province this week. In a joint statement from Adrian Dix, Minister of Health, and Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.’s provincial health officer, they said:

“Today, we are announcing a new case of COVID-19 in British Columbia. A woman in her 30s is presumed positive based on local testing, and samples have been sent to the National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) in Winnipeg, Man., for final confirmation. She resides in the Fraser Health region and recently returned from Iran.

“Fraser Health is actively investigating. The patient’s close contacts will be identified and contacted by public-health officials. The patient is in isolation at home.

“This brings the total number of cases in B.C. to six. One is presumed positive, with four confirmed positive by the NML. They remain in self-isolation and under care by public-health teams. The first case has recovered, as indicated by the resolution of symptoms, followed by two successive negative test results 24 hours apart.

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“The risk of this virus spreading within British Columbia remains low at this time. We are closely monitoring the situation in Canada and abroad. We will notify the public if the measures in B.C. change.

“We continue to recommend that everyone take the same important measures to help protect from respiratory illnesses at this time of year.”

To date, Canada has seen nine cases including three in Ontario.