The BC Government is reporting one new death in the Fraser Valley and 53 new COVID-19 cases today, including seven new cases in Interior Health.

Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry says that brings the total number of cases in the province to 1,066, 114 now in the Interior Health region.

“Right now, we seem to be holding our own,” Henry said. “We do have a few more weeks to go.”

“Our goal is to have these restrictions that we’ve put in place, and the orders that we’ve put in place, for as short a time as possible, but we also need to be mindful that we need to increase our activities in society in a way that is not going to tip us over an edge or increase the number of people who are getting infected with this disease.”

Over half the number of people – 606 in total – have now fully recovered from the virus, while there are 142 people in hospital with COVID-19 right now, with 67 of those in critical care.

Health Minister Adrian Dix says 61 per cent of acute care beds in B.C. are available for COVID-19 cases.

“Just to put in context what is happening out there in the system. You see that people are using healthcare for other reasons less at the moment,” Dix said. “This is for a number of reasons. We have for example seen a decline in regular ambulance calls.”

Dix adds one important measure is people self-isolating if they are returning home on repatriation flights.

“And there can be no ambiguity about this fact,” he noted. “It would be I think a real betrayal of people in your community to not follow those rules, which are by the way also the law at the federal level and the order at the provincial level.”

“The rules that are needed here have to be imposed before people get on the plane and after they leave the plane,” Dix said. “It is critically important that those rules be ensured and be communicated without ambiguity, clearly, plainly and with force. I’m hopeful that that will happen. That will continue to aid the efforts of millions of people in British Columbia.”

Most of B.C.’s cases continue to be located in the Lower Mainland, with 497 confirmed infections in the Vancouver Coastal Health region and 367 in the Fraser Health region.

The remaining cases in the province are in the Island Health region (72 cases) and in Northern Health (16 cases).