B.C. health officials are reporting 58 new COVID-19 cases today, one of which was epi-linked for a total of 5,242 cases in the province.

There were no new cases in the Interior Health Authority which remains at 425. Active cases saw a slight increase to 925, and there are now 22 people in hospital, up by four from yesterday, with seven people in intensive care.

The death toll remains at 203 people, with no new deaths today.

“We know that COVID-19 is going to be with us for many months to come. As a result, unlike other viruses that have a vaccine, our focus is to keep new cases low and slow, and quickly contain new outbreaks as they occur,” said a statement from the Ministry of Health.

“Our recent daily cases are higher than many of us are comfortable with, so let’s continue to do our part every moment of every day and keep COVID-19 where it needs to be. While we would all like to get to zero, we need to rather focus on prevention, detection and rapid response.”

There were two new healthcare outbreaks today at the Bear Creek Villa and at Langley Memorial Hospital, both in the Fraser Health region, for a total of 10 long-term care or assisted living facility outbreaks. No new community outbreaks and the outbreak at Fraser Valley Packers has been declared over.

“Many people have lost fathers and mothers, sons and daughters directly to the illness. For others, as evidenced by the latest BC Coroner’s Service report on illicit drug deaths, an existing crisis has worsened as a result of the pandemic. Our thoughts and condolences also go out to the families and communities of the 175 people we lost to the toxic street drug supply in July.

There are now 2,675 people who are under actively being monitored by public heatlh teams. A further 4,114 people are considered to have fully recovered.