The province’s Health Minister says he thinks for the most part, people were well behaved this BC Day Long weekend.

Adrian Dix says it was a safe, fun weekend to remember and with several weeks of summer to go, he is confident people will continue to follow the rules.

“As we know, the past month has been a more difficult month for us in terms of cases, in particular,’ he said. “And we’ve seen that in many jurisdictions close to us and familiar to us. Most of those jurisdictions would look at our numbers with envy, but we’ve focused on what happens here in British Columbia.”

Dix says the number of new cases should be a reminder to people that COVID-19 is still around us. There were 725 cases reported through July, up from the 334 reported in June.

“We know that we must continue to use our COVID sense and the skills that we have been taught to keep us safe, as well as all those who are counting on us to keep them safe too,” Dix added.

Over the long weekend health officials announced 146 new cases of COVID-19 in B.C., along with no new deaths. Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry too is preaching caution.

“In the immediate days following a long weekend, are when people can unknowingly spread the virus to others,” she noted.

There were nine new cases across Interior Health reported over the weekend, bringing the total to 377 since the pandemic began.

The provincial state of emergency has been extended by another two weeks for the tenth time after it was first declared on March 18.