British Columbia reported just four new COVID-19 cases and no new deaths as the province marked 10 days into its economic restart plan, Friday.
It is the eighth time this month that the province has seen new daily cases fall below 10.
It brings the total number of confirmed cases in B.C. to 2,562, nearly 85 per cent of which have recovered.
The number of active cases B.C. is managing has dropped to 221. Of those, 34 patients are in hospital, six of them in intensive care.
Earlier Friday, Fraser Health officials said the region was making progress in resuming scheduled surgeries that were postponed to free up hospital beds for potential coronavirus patients.
President and CEO Dr. Victoria Lee said Fraser Health hospitals had performed 1,185 surgeries between May 17 and May 24, a 50 per cent increase from the week prior.
“We are continuing to ramp up these efforts and are now nearly at pre-COVID levels,” said Lee.
Last week, British Columbia began working to clear the estimated 30,000 scheduled surgeries that have been postponed since mid-March.
On Thursday, Health Minister Adrian Dix said the province had completed more than 3,800 of those surgeries, and booked nearly 18,000 more.
“On May 31 we want all contracted private surgical facilities working at maximum capacity, and by June 15 all existing operating rooms working at full capacity,” said Dix at the Thursday briefing.
Dix said from that point, B.C. will work to add capacity by starting to book surgeries on weekends or during non-traditional hours.