B.C. health officials are reporting 58 new cases of COVID-19 today, including one epi-linked case, for a total of 5,848 cases.

None of the new cases were in the Interior Health Authority which remains at 440 cases. Active cases however increased slightly to 1,124, with 31 people in hospital, ten in intensive care. A further 2,761 people are being actively monitored by public health teams as a result of identified exposure to known cases of the virus.

Six of today’s cases were in Northern Health Authority, while the rest were in the Lower Mainland.

“The Northern Health region, the First Nations Health Authority and the Nisga’a Valley Health Authority (NVHA) have issued a joint alert for anyone in the Nass Valley who may have attended recent gatherings between Aug. 21 and 25,” said a statement from the Health Ministry. “Any gathering attendees are asked to contact the NVHA clinic and if symptoms develop, to immediately self-isolate.”

Health officials are again asking people to prepare for the upcoming flu season and to regroup and refocus to keep the number of new cases ‘low and slow’.

“As each of us does our part, scientists throughout our province are also actively working on the latest COVID-19 research,” added the statement.

“The BC COVID-19 Research and Collaboration Symposium, a virtual collaboration of B.C.’s academic health sciences network, involving public health, epidemiology, social science and education researchers from all around B.C., began today. The symposium is focused on furthering our understanding of the impacts of COVID-19 and the related public health measures.”

There are now 4,505 people who tested positive who are considered to have have recovered from the virus.