B.C.’s Provincial Health Officer is continuing to urge people to self-isolate if they have recently come home from the Kearl Lake oil sands project north of Fort McMurray.

Dr. Bonnie Henry says tracking cases from work camps at that oil sands project has been challenging. As of Saturday morning, there had been 15 COVID-19 cases in B.C. that are directly linked to that site.

“There’s a large number of people who work at that project in Alberta… Here in B.C., we are requiring people who have come back from working in that facility to self-isolate whilst they’re in B.C.,” Henry says.

“This is essential work and people are going back and forth for work. But as cases continue to be found both in Alberta and here in B.C., this is vitally important for us here in British Columbia that anyone who has been at that site since March 24th needs to follow our requirements in British Columbia when they are home.

“This includes your entire family being very diligent about physical distancing, and self-isolating upon your return. Part of our response is treating that entire area as an outbreak site, even though people may not recognize that they have contact… We have now seen transmission in families when people have come back from working, not realizing they’re ill or having quite mild symptoms.”

Today, Henry has announced 26 new cases of COVID-19 in B.C. and two new deaths, one in the Vancouver Coastal Health region and one in Fraser Health.

COVID-19 has now killed 114 people in B.C., and there have been 2,171 reported cases. Those cases include 992 in Fraser Health, 832 in Vancouver Coastal Health, 175 in Interior Health, 123 in Island Health and 49 in Northern Health.

There are 72 people in hospital with the virus across B.C., which is down from 79 yesterday and 82 on Thursday. Also, 1,376 people have recovered from the virus, which is more than 63 per cent of the reported cases.