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As the world inches closer to a pandemic, surveillance for the COVID-19 coronavirus in B.C. is increasingly focused on slowing its spread to avoid overwhelming health facilities that are already dealing with a bad flu season.

“My mantra is ‘contain, delay, prepare,'” said provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry. “We really need to focus on being prepared for broader transmission of this virus in our communities.”

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The province’s influenza pandemic plan is an excellent template for a response to COVID-19 because of the similarities between the two respiratory illnesses.

“We need to make sure that we protect our healthcare system so that we can take care of people who have this disease, but everybody else too, because we are still going to have broken legs and heart attacks,” she said.

The goal is to delay the transmission of the disease through the community as long as possible in hopes of preventing a spike in COVID-19 cases that could overwhelm the system’s ability to deal with the most vulnerable patients.