VANCOUVER—Two more people in British Columbia have died from coronavirus, including one who died in their home, provincial health officials confirmed Monday.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry described one of the two deaths as “our first death in the community” as a result of the virus.

“This is a person who died in their home and it was as a result of COVID-19,” she said.

There have now been 970 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in B.C., about half of whom (48 per cent) have recovered, said Henry.

“That’s a testament to the importance of people being in hospital at the right time, being ventilated at the right time, if they need it, and recovering from this,” she said.

“My hands go up to all of the care teams at our hospitals that are looking after these people.”

In contrast, just 25 per cent of Ontario’s 1,706 cases have been marked as resolved.

Both provinces began reporting cases of COVID-19 around the same time, in late January, about a month before Alberta and Quebec reported their first cases.

Henry has said that health officials across the country have agreed to stick with this definition for “recovered” cases: a person who tested positive for COVID-19 is considered recovered after they are free of symptoms for 10 days.

Craig Janes, director of the University of Waterloo’s school of public health and health systems, said it’s too early to say why the two provinces have such a large difference in recovery rates.

“It is striking at this point,” he said. “But we’re still dealing with quite small numbers, too. Things can change in the next two weeks quite dramatically.”

Janes also noted Ontario is behind on its testing compared to other provinces, which means it may not be capturing the milder cases of COVID-19 where recovery may happen quicker.

And while it is not clear why a greater percentage of people in B.C. are recovering from COVID-19 compared to Ontario, a 50 per cent recovery rate is “significant,” said Dr. Srinivas Murthy, an clinical associate professor at the University of British Columbia who specializes in infectious diseases.

Murthy and a team of researchers are currently conducting trials in hospitals across Canada to determine whether the antiviral drug Kaletra/Aluvia — originally developed to treat HIV — is effective against COVID-19.

“It’s still early days, so getting any large scale themes about how things compare through provinces is difficult,” he said.

In B.C., 19 people have died from the disease and there are currently 106 people who have tested positive in hospital — including 60 people in intensive care.

Health officials are dealing with 13 outbreaks in long-term care and assisted-living facilities in the province, all of which are located in the Lower Mainland, Henry said.

There have been 86 new cases confirmed in the past 48 hours, she said.

“We are not through the storm yet. We have not yet reached our peak,” she said.

“We need to continue to do all we can across government, across our health system, and in our community. Every person needs to do their bit.”

As of Monday, there are more than 6,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Canada, including 3,430 in Quebec and nearly 1,706 in Ontario.

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Henry has said B.C.’s measures appear to be working as the trajectory of new cases in the province changed from a 24 per cent average daily increase to 12 per cent as of March 21.

The provincial government released its current and worst-case scenario data on the COVID-19 pandemic last Friday. The numbers show the province more closely mirrors the South Korean experience than the situation in Italy, where the health-care system has been overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.

With files from The Canadian Press

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