Coronavirus: Interior Health region confirmed cases remain at 153

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Interior Health region remained at 153, provincial officials announced on Wednesday.

That’s the same number as Monday, and only up slightly from 150 last Friday, April 17.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry also announced 71 new cases throughout the province, bringing B.C.’s total to 1,759, up from Tuesday’s total of 1,724, along with three new deaths.

The deaths, according to Henry, all occurred in long-term care homes.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases elsewhere throughout B.C:

• Vancouver Coastal region: 745
• Fraser region: 747
• Vancouver Island region: 110
• Northern B.C.: 40

Henry also said there are 1,079 people in B.C. who have fully recovered from the virus, up from 1,041 on Tuesday.

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However, she also announced outbreaks, including three in long-term care facilities in the Fraser Health region.

“We continue to experience new community outbreaks in British Columbia,” said Henry. “And this, of course, is very, very concerning to me and to all of us.

“This tells us that we have more work to do to break the chains of transmission in our communities and to make sure that every individual, every business, every community, every family does what we need to do to break these chains.

“And that’s everyone all the time. We can’t afford to have any weaknesses in our firewall if we are going to be able to move ahead into our new normal.”

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Henry continued, saying “we know people are tired of staying apart from their loved ones. We know we are tired of not being able to do the social connections and events that we are used to doing.

“But to ease restrictions, we need to have a decline in both the number of new cases and the numbers of outbreaks.”

Henry also had a message to businesses in B.C.

“You must have measures in place to ensure everyone who is working is healthy and can keep a safe distance from each other in the workplace,” she said.

“We do not penalize employees for staying home if they are ill during this pandemic. Employers need to understand that an outbreak in your business has effects on all of us. It can also have significant financial impact both for the business and for your employees.”

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According to a website tracking COVID-19, there were 2,620,579 cases as of 5 p.m., on Wednesday.

The U.S. had the most cases at 837,947, and was followed by Spain (208,389), Italy (187,327), France (157,125) and Germany (150,062). Canada was 13^th at 41,327.