For much of this week, the reports on the COVID response from Doctor Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix have been relatively familiar, the case counts come in at less than 15 and few concerns of urgency have formed for the narrative as British Columbians continue to heed many of the messages and measures in place.
Today's report did not veer too far of that pathway, as Doctor Henry relayed the latest notes.
“Today, we are announcing 14 new cases who have tested positive for COVID-19, for a total of 2,694 cases in British Columbia.
There are 183 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and 2,344 people who tested positive have recovered.
Of the total COVID-19 cases, 13 individuals are hospitalized, five of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation.?
To date there have been 917 cases of COVID-19 recorded in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 1,386 in the Fraser Health region, 130 in the Island Health region, 195 in the Interior Health region and 66 in the Northern Health region, which has been a constant mark for much of the week.
And while much of our attention has been directed towards the COVID-19 response, today Dr. Henry and Minister Dix reminded British Columbians of another health crisis, with a surge in Overdose deaths from illicit drugs in just the last month.
“COVID-19 is not our only health crisis. Today, the BC Coroners Service announced that 170 people in B.C. have died from overdoses from a toxic illicit drug supply in the month of May alone.
The extent and complexity of the two crises we are facing, the overdose crisis and COVID-19 pandemic, have stretched our public health capacity to the limits. COVID-19 is forcing all of us to stay further apart from others, isolating people and adding to what is already an immense challenge.
There is no one, single cause to the overdose emergency, and there is no one, simple solution.
Addiction and substance use are complex. We must eliminate the stigma and shame that leads people to be afraid to reach out to their family or friends to even talk about their drug use, and we must all do our part to protect ourselves, our communities and our loved ones."
The full COVID update for the day can be reviewed here.
The BC Centre for Disease control has some valuable Coronavirus notes related to COVID-19 you can explore that information here.
Federal Government site
British Columbia Government site
The World Health Organization website also offers up the latest advisories on the global situation.
More from Northern Health can be reviewed here
You can review our archive of past statements and local information here.
Local governments and organizations have also provided for increased awareness of COVID-19 issues, the string of statements that came quickly at the end of the week can be reviewed here.
For notes from across Canada and British Columbia we have been archiving the latest items through our political portal Darcy McGee
Ottawa Observations
Victoria Viewpoints
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
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