Amid lockdowns and cancellations, BC’s Health Minister Adrian Dix says the province continues to ramp up testing for COVID-19, with over 17,000 people tested.

Adrian Dix says it is a steep increase from the roughly 6,300 tests that were done as of last Friday.

“And we now have multiple locations, five locations around the province that actually do the physical tests, that run the tests,” he said. “Of course there are many many more that are collecting the tests around the province.”

Dix says the province’s testing strategy is focused on targeting clusters and outbreaks, as well as people with adverse symptoms. People with mild symptoms are being told to stay home and recover, and that they don’t need to be tested.

“Our testing has become more strategic. We are doing more and more of it, and more and more of it is necessary,” Dix added. “On February 28, I think we had done about 1,000 tests. The following week, which was approximately March 6, I think, it was about 2,000. And last Friday, it was 6,326.”

He says the province will release the official number of tests it has conducted over the course of the current week on Friday.

The province has launched an online COVID-19 self-assessment test, which has been well received. Dix says there were almost 775,000 people who used the service as of the Tuesday night, with that number close to a million users on Wednesday afternoon.

There have been 231 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in BC, with seven deaths. Most of the cases (144) are in the Vancouver Coastal Health area, followed by Fraser Health with 58. In the Interior Health area, there have been nine cases.

Sixteen cases are on Vancouver Island, and four are in Northern Health regions.