VANCOUVER—Three more people in B.C. have died from novel coronavirus as provincial health officials declared a public health emergency Tuesday and said they were experiencing a spike in cases.

Experts say this dramatic increase was not unexpected, but that it should now be clear to residents why governments need to take sweeping measures to try to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry confirmed three more people had died Tuesday — two were from Lynn Valley Care Centre, the long-term care home where four people have already died.

“Tragically, we have three new deaths reported today. Two of them are associated with the ongoing outbreak at Lynn Valley Care Centre,” Henry said.

There have been eight COVID-19 related deaths in Canada so far — seven in B.C. and one in Ontario. Six of the seven B.C. deaths are linked to Lynn Valley Care Centre in North Vancouver. The other death is a man in his 80s in the Fraser Health region in the lower mainland.

Henry also said there are 83 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the province, a marked increase from previous daily updates.

The announcement that B.C. has declared a public health emergency followed similar declarations from Alberta and Ontario earlier in the day.

There are now 186 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in B.C., including outbreaks at Lynn Valley and Hollyburn House, another care home, as well as Lions Gate Hospital. All of those facilities are in North Vancouver.

The vast majority of people who have tested positive for the virus are recovering at home, in self-isolation. Henry said seven people in the province are currently receiving treatment in hospital.

She said the dramatic increase in cases announced today is partly due to the backlog of COVID-19 tests in B.C., where tests conducted several days ago are only now being analyzed.

“I do expect we will see increased numbers over the next few days as well,” she said.

“These were people who were identified, public health action was taken, it just wasn’t reflected in the public numbers.”

Public health professor Craig Janes said Henry’s explaination is a reasonable one, adding that Ontario is also experiencing a backlog of tests. But he said the surge in cases could also point to the start of a dramatic increase in COVID-19 cases in B.C.

“Modellers suggest that this thing will go pretty quickly once it starts to go because you have an exponential growth rate of the infection. So it will be doubling every couple of days,” he said.

But Janes said it is also too early to tell what sweeping measures directing people against international travel and restricting gatherings to 50 people or less will have. Health officials may see the number of cases slow about a week from now, he said, explaining that the latest data from China shows average incubation of COVID-19 is five or six days.

The people who just got positive test results “could have been infected a week ago before a number of these measures went into effect in a big way,” said Janes. “There is that lag time, so we may not see the effects of our attempts to mitigate or supress transmission for another week or so.”

Like Henry, Janes said he expects to see the number of cases continue to rise for weeks, if not months.

“People shouldn’t necessarily be alarmed by that. It’s what we expected.”

But what Tuesday’s spike in cases should signal to people, said Janes, is that the seemingly drastic actions taken by government are in fact necessary.

“These are really essential steps we need to take and we need to take them now. Even though it feels like we’re overreacting,” he said.

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B.C. announced indefinite school closures Tuesday and Vancouver Coastal Health authority ordered all bars and resatuarants in Vancouver closed Tuesday night to prevent people from gathering on St. Patrick’s Day. B.C. health authorities are also telling Americans not to visit the province, despite the Canadian government exempting U.S. citizens from a travel ban announced Monday.

B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix ended his remarks Tuesday with a message for the public.

“We can come together and do what we need to do as individuals ... to slow down the spread of COVID-19, to contain it to the maximum possible degree,” he said. “And we can do it for each other.”

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