A man in his 60s in the Interior Health area is the first COVID-19 related death in B.C. outside of the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island.
Provincial Health Officer Doctor Bonnie Henry says the man was recovering at home but did not specify where he lived.
“We were notified of it in the statistics today, so yesterday was when the death was notified,” Henry said. “I will tell you that he was mostly at home but had gone into the hospital with an acute condition just prior to his death.”
This death was one of three announced by Dr. Henry on Wednesday, who also reported 44 new cases of COVID-19 since Tuesday’s update.
“We recognize and have recognized from the beginning that every community is unique and they have different needs, both health care needs, essential service needs, and they require different levels of support,” she added.
Officials are urging people recovering at home with COVID-19 symptoms to seek medical help if their condition worsen over time
“People who have apparently a mild illness early on, it’s a critical period of time around day five, day six, day seven, where they either to really get better and shrug it off, or some people can very quickly go downhill,” Henry said. “And that is a critical period of time.”
She points out there is a low threshold for bringing seniors into hospital for observation.
“Also covering things like people who have underlying illnesses which may make them at more risk,” she added. “And making sure that we have ongoing connections to make sure that if there’s any concern at all that someone might not be getting better, that we have the ability to get them into a facility quicker, just in case.”
Henry says the government is making sure seniors or people with underlying risks are able to get into health facilities as quickly as possible with COVID-19 symptoms.
There are now 1,561 cases of COVID-19 across B.C., with 146 cases across Interior Health. In all, there are 131 in hospital, down by three from yesterday’s numbers. 59 people are in critical care, up one from yesterday.
And of the provincial total, 955 people are considered fully recovered, or 61 per cent of the total number of cases.
