By Russ Byth and Pete McIntyre

B.C. COVID update: 55 new cases; six more deaths

Apr 2, 2020 | 4:00 PM

British Columbia’s death toll from COVID-19 increased by six on Thursday, for a total of 31.

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry confirmed the grim number, with three in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, one in Fraser Health and two on Vancouver Island, the first COVID deaths in that region.

Henry said says there were 55 new cases in the province since the Wednesday update, bringing the total to 1,121.

In the Interior Health region, there were an additional six cases for a total of 121.

There are 149 people in hospital, 68 are in Intensive care.

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And 641 patients have fully recovered.

Locally, there have been no new cases among the temporary foreign workers at Bylands Nursery, so that remains at 19 with no further test results to come at this time.

However, there is a new community outbreak involving one inmate at the Okanagan Regional Correctional Centre in Oliver.

“This is the first test that has been positive in a correctional facility in B.C.,” said Henry who added a number of measures were put in place to reduce the chance of spread into all provincial and federal correctional facilities.

Dr. Henry said again that it is a challenging time, especially with a number of religious events coming up and we need to be very careful. There are more than 1 million cases of COVID-19 worldwide.

She says people returning to B.C. from cruise ships will be actively tested and isolated. Dr. Henry added that physical distancing is keeping the number of people in hospital down and that allows health care workers to handle the cases.

The provincial health officer also said non-essential travel to places like cabins and fishing lodges has to stop, as smaller communities simply can’t afford to see their local health care systems overwhelmed.

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The latest COVID case numbers for British Columbia as of 3 p.m. April 2:

There are 55 new cases since Wednesday.

The provincial total is 1,121

525 of the cases are in Vancouver Coastal Health region

386 in Fraser Health

121 in Interior Health

72 on Vancouver Island

17 in Northern Health

There has been six more deaths since Wednesday, bringing the total to 31.

Three are in Vancouver Coastal, one in Fraser Health, and two on Vancouver Island.

There is a community outbreak related to an inmate at the Okanagan Correctional Centre near Oliver in Interior Health.