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The rationale for the move was evident with Thursday’s figures on the outbreak, released at the same time as the announcement from Dr. Henry and Dix.

B.C. has some 235 cases of COVID-19 associated with long term care and assisted living facilities. The tally includes 143 residents and 92 staff.

Moreover, 60 per cent of the deaths in B.C. have been of residents in long-term care.

“Residents of long-term care and assisted living are very vulnerable to COVID-19,” Dr. Henry explained.

“What we are trying to do is make sure that the workers who provide the service to people in long-term care are able to work at a single facility.”

Staff working in multiple facilities is a problem the New Democrats inherited from the previous B.C. Liberal government.

But as Dr. Henry also acknowledged Thursday, “this is something we have recognized from the very beginning of this outbreak.

“The challenges that we have with health care workers of all kinds needing to work at multiple different facilities makes it such a challenge to try and control outbreaks. That has been brought to the forefront during this pandemic in many ways. And it is a part of the tragedy with the multiple long-term care facility outbreaks.”

She recognized the problem in her daily media briefings as far back as March 9. “We are very aware of that and it is a challenge with our system — health care workers work in many different facilities sometimes.”

It was the day she announced the first COVID-19 death in B.C., that of a man in his 80s who had been a resident at the ill-fated Lynn Valley Care centre. She also disclosed that one health care worker, who had worked in at least two facilities, had become infected.