good morning my name is Adrienne Dix I'm
the BC Minister of Health and beside me
is our provincial health officer dr. dr.
Bonnie Henry we're honored to be here on
the traditional territories of the
Longwood speaking people the song G's ns
squat First Nations for the remainder of
the week we're going to move to a
regular time for daily briefings on the
Cova 19 questions that will be at 3:30
the first briefing will be tomorrow in
Vancouver at Vancouver cabinet offices
and with that I wanted to introduce dr.
Henry to lead to start today's briefing
thank you thank you and I want to start
off by letting you know that we
unfortunately have had to death here in
British Columbia we are deeply saddened
to to hear that one of the residents of
the Linn Valley care home who was
infected with kovat 19 passed away last
night and our heartfelt condolences go
out to his family and loved ones and
also of course to the staff who provided
him care and to his home at the Lynn
dolly care center we also have a number
of new cases and I'll start with talking
about what is going on at the Linn
Valley care center were up to 32
confirmed cases here in British Columbia
now as you know the Vancouver Coastal
Health has been on site at the Linn
Valley care center since we first became
aware that the community case that we
had was the health care worker who
worked at that Center it's now become
apparent that there are other people at
that Center who were ill a number of
residents as we know so far two
residents have tested positive there's
ongoing testing and ongoing monitoring
of all of the residents at the facility
in addition excuse me in addition one
additional health care worker has tested
positive for kovat 19 she's a woman in
her 40s who lives in the Fraser Valley a
Fraser Health Authority area and she is
in isolation right now
in addition we have two new close
contacts of case 21 our community case a
male in his teens and a male in his 50s
and they both reside in that Fraser
Health Region and are isolated at home
and both of their condition is also
stable over the weekend as well we've
identified two additional imported cases
interpret into British Columbia a female
in her 50s who has returned from travel
to Iran and a male in his 30s who is our
first imported case with a history of
travel to Italy both of them are in the
Vancouver Coastal Health region and both
again are isolated at home and doing
well I will also give an update on our
other cases so we we still have four
people who have recovered completely we
are awaiting testing on a number of
others whose symptoms have resolved
completely but as you know we are
requiring people to have negative tests
before we say that they are fully
recovered from this and a number of them
have been tested regularly but do not
yet have to negative tests at least 24
hours apart so we are monitoring those
we have three people who remain in
hospital two people in the Fraser Health
Region and they're both in stable
condition and one person who remains in
the ICU at the Vancouver General
Hospital and is also in stable condition
a couple of things that have come up
over the weekend that I do want to
mention one is there has been some
letters gone to some schools in the
Fraser Valley region mostly to reassure
people there were people who were in
those facilities who have tested
positive for kovat 19 however they were
asymptomatic which means we do not
believe there is a risk to people who
are using those facilities the schools
have been very proactive and did
additional cleaning over the weekend to
make sure that everybody is reassured
that
they're safe and that we have processes
in place in all of our schools now to
enhance cleaning to enhance measures for
people to be able to clean their hands
regularly and we'll be monitoring those
situations of course as these go on
we've also today the federal government
has increased their travel advisory
warning for people who are planning to
go on cruise ships we have had a number
of people as you know who have returned
to British Columbia who were on previous
cruises and so far two people have
tested positive for this and they're
both people who are in hospital at the
moment and so we are we are pleased that
the Canadian government has recognized
the risk right now that traveling on
cruise ships does it does give people
and we know that there's there's the
Grand Princess off California there's
been some cruise ships in Egypt as well
where there have been cases and it's
just an environment where people cannot
separate from each other
sufficiently to prevent transmission of
respiratory viruses and with the ongoing
outbreak that we're having around the
world now there's really no way to
effectively screen people out of cruise
ships and so it is really taking a
chance on on your health at the moment I
don't think this will last forever but
the the federal government has upgraded
it to a level four warning which is to
advise against going on cruise cruises
in the near future the other thing that
we have been getting a lot of questions
about is about events and whether we
should be canceling community events I
talked a little bit on Saturday about
some of these the closer environments
indoor environments where people do
gatherings where people share meals
where people spend a lot of time
together in closed environments and I'm
asking people to consider having
alternatives to those types of
environments right now particularly if
they're being attended by people who are
elderly
who are more likely to have severe
illness or complications from this virus
so we'll be talking some more about that
but to forego some of the things that we
do sometimes in greetings in hugs
kissing shaking hands and to try and put
some distance between us even in small
events in business meetings look at how
we can do these things virtually there
is also a lot of risk assessment that
goes into events and larger events that
are happening we had the rugby sevens on
the weekend and there were different
measures that were put in place to
ensure where the teams came from to
ensure there were provisions in place to
to separate people if we can to make
sure they could clean their hands
regularly and each of these large events
is taken on a case-by-case basis and we
do a risk assessment about who's
attending what the environment is how
long it is and and all of those
different measures so that will be
ongoing and I know a number of events
have been cancelled and there's a
variety of reasons for that and public
health is here to support people in
those decision making and finally I
wanted to bring up a disturbing thing
that we've been made aware of is that
some people are calling people and
offering them fraudulent laboratory
testing for a cost and we're telling
everybody in British Columbia there is
kovat 19 testing is done by our lab
which is a accredited lab we are moving
it out to several other labs around the
province but this is all done for free
our turnaround time is very quick and
they do not and should not be asked for
money and should not be paying people so
be aware that there is for some reason
people trying to scam people around
getting testing in this province
thank you and so thank you very much dr.
Henry this is obviously a very sad day
for all of us but especially of course
for the family and loved ones of the man
who passed away at the Linn Valley care
home and our hearts go out to the family
to the care family to all of the people
who worked the Linn Valley care home
this is a obviously a very sad day for
them and indeed for all of us who are
working on this question today dr. Henry
has announced five new cases which means
the total of cases is up to 32 and the
majority of those cases 16 involved in
some way travel to Iran so half of the
cases if I have involved in some way
traveled to China and obviously travel
from other places and then there's the
significant issues that we see at the
Linn Valley care home I wanted to say
that what this shows is what was said on
Friday and the detailed briefing we gave
to reporters in the community is that
some people are very vulnerable people
with pre-existing medical conditions are
more vulnerable than others and
obviously people who are older over 80
are vulnerable we saw in the evidence
that was presented by dr. Henry on on
Friday from from Hubei Province that
somewhere over 14 percent was the
mortality rate for people over 80 who
who have covered 19 so the the situation
for all of us and the responsibility for
all of us is significant to not to not
go out when we're sick to not work when
we're sick to not go to school when
we're sick but also did not visit care
homes to not visit hospitals and not
visit our friends and our family who are
older if we're sick and I think we won
of course to reiterate that today dr.
Henry has talked about some of the other
issues but we will also want to continue
to praise people who are providing care
around the province and all in all of
the work they do people involved in this
matter from dr. Henry the people of BC
centric and for Disease Control to
health authorities people work in care
homes are enormous ly committed to
people and we want to acknowledge today
all of the work that they do and all the
work being done the support they're
getting for members of the community on
some of the broader policy questions as
you know the federal government made its
announcements around cruise-ship we
wanted to well thank the federal
government for increasing their warning
to people who are traveling on cruise
ships and for their efforts to bring
people home from the Grand Princess
Canadians home from the Grand Princess
their determination to do that is much
appreciated and I think we need to
acknowledge the extraordinary work done
by federal officials on previous
evacuations in particular from Wuhan and
from Tokyo so with that we're happy to
take questions as I said we're going to
do regular briefings at a regular time
every day for the remainder of this week
and into the future from Monday to
Friday and on weekends if necessary in
those briefings this week will take
place at 3:30 so that the public and all
of you can plan for that thank you then
so we're gonna start with the questions
and Victoria had to go on to the phone
to those on the phone please star one
press star one to queue up les Lane
first and then bond if Canadians are
advised not to get on cruise ships
should cruise ships be docking in Canada
and related to that release the call on
that question which I'm sure is being
discussed is it doctor town or yourself
that is absolutely being discussed where
we are very aware that the cruise ship
season is coming up here in Victoria and
Vancouver and on the East Coast as well
so there is active communications and
the call is really made by the federal
government its Transport Canada the
Canadian border service agency
but they do take advice from both myself
and my counterpart in Nova Scotia as
well as dr. Tam advice for them
I have offered certainly my advice and I
know there is ongoing discussions
my personal belief right now is that we
are in a very critical time around the
world and it is my belief that we should
be delaying our cruise season until we
are in a safer place internationally as
question on that I'd give any indication
of when they might make that call I
expect it'll be coming if not this week
but within the next they within the
coming days for sure if there's ongoing
discussions and it's a challenging thing
you know we we know that this will
impact businesses both here in Victoria
and the tourist industry is being
hard-hit by this but my primary concern
is the health and safety of people in
British Columbia and I have grave
concerns about boat cruises right now
and you remember there's more than 200
people Canadians on the cruise ship but
are currently under the off the coast of
California the government of canada is
taking this extraordinary step as you
can imagine of essentially evacuating
people who are asymptomatic to trenton
and I think that's why the warning is
important today because there is we have
time and you'll see this week
developments around the crease cruise
season in Canada which starts in April
in the case of the West Coast in any
event but obviously people are making
decisions and lots of Canadians go on
cruises this time of year we see this in
the case of both Diamond Princess and
the Grand Princess so that's why the
communication today is really important
for them and for people to understand
that this evacuation and the approach
the Government of Canada is taking to
this evacuation now that this warning
has been given may not continue to be
the approach so people have to take that
that in
Meishan they're receiving from the
Government of Canada very seriously over
to bond that Keith and then bender and
then Mike won The Wall Street Journal
noted on the weekend vaccinations and
good picture it's a good story
that's we've done well here in which
going unfortunately our neighbor just
across the border has been are we doing
enough to deal with the risk of people
traveling back and forth between
Washington State and British Columbia
given that they really don't know they
haven't done what we've done in terms of
identifying risk and how far may be
spread of the community ferry that
arrives here a couple of times a day
from Washington State we have border
crossings are we doing enough could we
do more should we do well start by
saying even though as you say the
testing has been behind in the United
States they are absolutely putting all
gargantuan effort into identifying that
where people are in the community
particularly in Washington State they
have a very strong public health system
so I am NOT concerned about the spread
there in the same way as I as we have
seen in places like Iran for example but
it is clear that their their strategy
has been a challenging one in the US and
we do need there's no way we could stop
people going back and forth there are
many Canadians who live in Washington
State many people who have connections
back and forth we do need people to be
aware and to know what to do and we're
doing that both in Washington State and
here and across the country both of our
countries
anybody who's traveled and who gets sick
needs to really pay attention to staying
away from others that's the main thing
that all of us can do and to take those
precautions that we need to take every
day to prevent transmission of
infections and it you know wouldn't be a
day gone by where I don't say you know
cleaning your hands regularly covering
your mouth coughing into your sleeve and
staying away from others if you're sick
you may not have this virus but we know
there are other
that are causing people to be sick right
now so people need to know what to do
stay away from others if it gets more
serious and you need medical attention
or if there's some connection to covert
19 then call ahead so that you can be
assessed and tested if needed and cared
for safely no I believe when the most
recent cases in Ontario came from came
from travel from Colorado for example
and really what it tells us is what
we've been saying for some days which is
how deeply interconnected the world is
both the links with Washington State all
of us I think many British Columbians
have been there hundreds and hundreds of
times some thousands of times I would
think
and so those links are profound but
they're also profound with Iran and as
one of the reasons why we have to do
what we need to do here in British
Columbia but we also have to support all
other jurisdictions because what happens
in public health in Iran matters here
and what happens in public health in
Korea matters here and we've seen that
and we've also seen very strong health
care systems such as Japan such as Korea
such as Italy face very severe
conditions and and outbreaks so we have
to we have to acknowledge that this is
an interconnected world and do
everything we can and I think with
respect to Washington state we're
working very closely dr. Henry in
particular is working very closely and
we are at a government-to-government
level to both support them and work with
them we've had so far as you know one
case of travel from Seattle and positive
case of someone who lives in Seattle who
has found positive in British Columbia
but people have to be conscious because
before we found the case in Iran before
we can found the case in Iran we didn't
know there was an issue with Iran and
and since then we've had half of our
cases in British Columbia involved
travel to Iran in some ways or
connection to travel to Iran so this is
a fast evolving situation and so the
advice we give and the advice that dr.
Henry and medical professionals are
giving is the advice that people need to
follow
the numbers in World Health Organization
we've seen estimates could be as many as
a million cases worldwide in April based
on the numbers in British Columbia where
could we be in terms of number of cases
it's really challenging and to speculate
and I'm not going to speculate around
numbers it's our focus is on breaking
what we call those chains of
transmission so trying to identify
anybody and this there's a number of
case in point the case from Iran is one
the fact that we had somebody we've been
doing surveillance in our in our
community level so all of the influenza
tests in the lab are automatically
tested for covert 19 that's how we
identified the healthcare worker and now
the outbreak at the Linn Valley care
center so our focus is on making sure
that we can find people really quickly
and break those chains of transmission
so we don't have widespread transmission
of the disease and and that means all of
us have to do our part and when I talk
about social distancing when I talk
about having gatherings and and not
staying arm's length from people not
doing the the handshaking sharing of
cups and things like that right now
that's how we stop transmission in our
community recognizing that we can't
control everything that's coming in in
orders we got a very brief into Friday
on the emergency plan and how much
planning there means in order to know
when to move to the next phase of the
plan level it's canceling elective
surgery or getting retired doctors to
come back into the system
you must need data you must need
projection and where we are so you're
not telling us where you are or you
haven't figured it out yet no I'm
telling you exactly where we are we had
32 cases and we have a number of people
who are close contacts that we're
following but those numbers are small
and we are updating on those our
strategy for understanding where we're
going as around the testing that we're
doing but we are also doing modeling
and modeling to help us look at
scenarios and we talked a little bit
about that when we announced the plan
last week so the VC CDC has been looking
at the numbers that have happened in
other places and helped us so we're
looking at scenario planning for a whole
bunch of different things so it's not
going to be where we're here today and
we're there tomorrow we are using some
of those tools now for example we are
asking some retired Public Health
physicians to come back and work with us
because we need to augment our public
health capacity to do the contact
tracing to do the monitoring of people
who are coming in so we're taking some
of these tools already that we have as
part of our our provincial plan where
the health authorities are looking at
how we can set up assessment centers to
wrap up testing if we need to and we're
starting to see the need to do some of
that in some communities so it's not a
it's not a phase in terms of you were in
one place now and will be the next place
tomorrow it's not going to happen across
the province in the same way so we'll be
taking the measures that we need in the
areas that we need as it arises dr.
Henry how you states we had a woman call
us said she called 8 1 1 what was given
no advice of what to do in terms she
wants one feel about my doctor's office
emergency work so first of all it is 8 1
1 the people that are fully
knowledgeable about this in terms of
dispensing advice and secondly if you
could walk people through again what
they should do yeah so eat 1 1 is our
health link so there's an initial intake
there's also a nurse line that's
associated with that
and yes we update them very frequently
over the weekend it was many times about
exact situations and so they have the
algorithms to understand what people's
risk is and they walk through that risk
with them so for example we knew there
was a community exposure community event
that somebody was at and the people in
that event have been notified they have
the details so they can actually
say no it wasn't the event that you were
at so it's very hard sometimes to
understand or to know what an individual
person's interaction has been with 8 1 1
and they may not have received the
advice that they wanted to hear and that
can be challenging too
so right now we want everybody to stay
home if you're sick
even if you have the sniffles you have a
bit of a cold your children are feeling
a little bit under the weather keep them
home from school keeping yourself home
from work if you're not feeling well
even if you have no relationship took
over 19 we want you to do that and we
want you to clean your hands regularly
we want you to cough in your sleeve but
those are important measures that all of
us need to take right now for people who
have had specific exposures or if you're
at that point where you have shortness
of breath and you have difficulty
breathing you need medical attention
then call ahead and tell people that you
have a respiratory illness and you need
to be seen that way they can take the
measures that are needed to protect
everybody else in the health care
setting as well and just just on on the
eight one one question will be it's a
little in response to Mom's question as
well we I believe we ordinarily get in
the neighborhood of 1,100 1,200 calls a
week that number of calls were receiving
has more than doubled which is a real
challenge so it shows how we'll be
building up capacity as well on that
live so people do have to be patient we
know that after each one of these
briefings we get more we get more calls
to the line after each night on the
nightly news we get more calls on the
line so one of the areas that we'll be
building supports will be around 8 1 1
in the coming days and we'll be letting
you know about that long-term care homes
some homes are not allowing visitors
some part are you going to institute a
uniform policy and what should people do
but is it even if you're not sick don't
go to a lunker a long-term care home
I mean long-term care homes our homes
and their residents who live there need
the interaction with their family but
right now we want people to be really
really careful so it depends on where
you are in the in the province where the
risk is higher all long-term care homes
should be making sure that they know
what to do and have their plans in place
and they'll be working with the health
authorities I know they're doing that
already we want to have enhanced
screening of visitors who are coming in
and out of long-term care so if you are
going to visit someone don't go as a
large group go one by one only go to
visit the person that you're there to
see if you have any concerns about
respiratory illnesses stay away or if
you need to see we know that many people
in long-term care are elderly and that
some of them are going to die from other
reasons and if you need to be with
somebody and you're not feeling well let
the home know ahead of time so you can
be given a mask you can appropriate
things in place so that nobody else in
the care homes put at risk how long can
the virus live on surface yeah that's
one of the questions that we've been the
science has been looking at it can live
in depending on the temperature and
humidity for several hours sometimes
that's why enhanced cleaning is really
really important and so regular
household cleaning products work very
well against this virus it's what we
call an envelope viruses so it is easily
cleaned with using regular household
cleaning products or a one-in-ten bleach
solution but even if it's on surfaces
that's not how we get infected we get
infected by touching those surfaces and
again it doesn't come and that we don't
get infected through our hands we get
infected because we inoculate ourselves
so that key step of you know if you're
on the bus and your hands are touching
things that might have been contaminated
you need to clean your hands and be
really careful and vigilant about not
touching your face and eyes Oprah bender
then Mike then Adrian back to us I'm
just wondering if you can update us on
the community cases
if there's been a determination made
about I know with one of them there has
I think there's another one last week
where there was still an investigation
being done about where this person
contracted so the only community cases
the person who's the health care worker
who's been linked back now to the Linn
Valley care center and that oak break
investigation is ongoing but it is
becoming apparent that her source of
infection was at at work that not that
she brought it into the the facility so
detailed investigation it takes some
time but we're then Coover coastal is
working really hard to try and and
connect those dots and figure out how it
was introduced into the care home the
other person was our case who resides in
Seattle and I don't have an update on
exactly where the contact was there
though she was in apparently in some of
the facilities where there had been
cases and with four new testing labs
opening this week is there any thought
being given to doing sort of general
testing perhaps a care homes where
seniors have the host Erin yeah so we
there's no point in testing people who
don't have symptoms and so that's one of
the things we know the test is not valid
and in people who don't have any
symptoms at all though we do test some
people if they've had close contact and
we know that particularly young people
can be asymptomatic so that there's a
bit of a judgment around the type of
contact people have had we are testing
all of the we we routinely didn't have a
protocol for any influenza like illness
we call it in in care homes and we are
testing all of those for kovat 19 as
well as for influenza and RSV and the
other routine respiratory viruses that
are tested for so the other four labs
they were opened and they've been online
as of last week so two of them last week
and two of them late last week
just um just wondering in terms of with
this case that we've heard about about
the school and renting out space is that
something that should not be done right
now perhaps is that sharing of that
space at schools I guess especially
again in this case there was nobody with
symptoms who were in that space so it's
not a risk and we put out the messages
so people can be reassured I think each
of the schools has to look at how things
are being used and really important is
to have those enhanced cleaning and the
schools have been doing this cleaning
twice a day and especially high touch
areas and gyms would be an area that
we'd want that and then everybody else
needs to take the measures of cleaning
their hands and being really cautious
about and staying away staying away if
you're not feeling well there's a staff
member at Sullivan a sensory -
apparently tested positive greater
health has been at a letter saying that
risk is low but parents were still
worried so I worried should those
parents be and the second question is
key best number one personally there was
the letters were about people who had
been in that school and there's two
schools that were asymptomatic so there
is no risk to the people in the schools
that we know of and that's what the
letter is about it's about reassuring
parents that the school has taken all
the measures to make sure that
everything has been cleaned they've
enhanced the measures around cleany and
around students and helping students
take things the measures they need like
cleaning their hands regularly and and I
think the teachers and the staff at that
both those schools and all the schools
in the province actually are doing an
excellent job on that
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your advice to heart regarding social
distancing it's hard to square that with
them going to a hockey game or theater
or a nightclub when you get to the point
of making recommendations of public
gatherings yeah so we've made some
recommendations and it it's all about
risk and it's all about where the
setting is can people be far enough away
from each other you know hockey games
are very different from going to
nightclubs but we also don't have a lot
of transmission in our community yet so
they have made different decisions in
Seattle for example about some things so
each of them is really on a case-by-case
basis but it's we know this virus is
transmitted by close contact so within
an arm's length of me and it's when
people inhale those droplets or with
touching up surfaces and then self
inoculating
so in places like who Bay for example
are parts of northern Italy where there
was a lot of people sick those
environments become much more likely to
be contaminated and it's harder for
people to remember to clean their hands
and all those things so the
goes up of any sorts of gatherings right
now it's those close contact gatherings
that we know people are transmitted and
even in China most people who get sick
from this get sick from their family and
their friends the people that they're
spending time indoors with in close
contact so that's the biggest risk and
that's why right now we're focusing on
those types of gatherings like religious
gatherings like community gatherings
indoors where people share food those
are the types of settings where we have
seen transmission and where we need to
be most cautious right now the number of
care workers work in multiple long-term
care homes first of all is that a
concern and secondly what about the care
workers in the Lynn Valley home right
now are they in isolation very how are
they so we are very aware of that and
it's a challenge with our system health
care workers and we know that whether
it's care workers or nurses or even
physicians we work in many different
health authorities many different
facilities sometimes that is part of the
ongoing investigation at the Linn Valley
care home to find out exactly where
everybody worked and make sure that
those other facilities are investigated
and what's going on in those facilities
that people who had close contact with
our additional case so there's two
health care workers from the Linn Valley
who have tested positive and they're
close contacts from work are at home on
isolation and that is a challenge it's a
challenge for staffing of the care
facility as well and Vancouver Coastal
is is working with all of the health
sector to see how we can make sure that
they have that what they need for that
care home envision volatilizes questions
going from recommendations to actual
orders if we need to so we can take a
lot of measures without having to
formally write an order we're not at the
point where I would see us as ordering
all public gatherings to stop but we are
watching that that is something that
might happen it might happen if we get
to a place where there are more
our cases popping up in the community
that we can't link and it's a way of
keeping sick people away from well
people until we can find those links and
break those chains so that's what
they're doing in many communities in in
Washington State and around the u.s.
we've seen it on a much broader scale in
places like northern Italy right now I
we're doing everything we can to not get
there and to protect our communities but
also to protect our health care system
so that we're effectively able to care
for people with this virus but also
people who have all the other health
things and health needs in our system so
that's why we we've come up with the
provincial plan why we're broadening it
so that we have all the tools we need
should we need them right now we're
still at the point where we have very
few cases sporadic cases popping up
we're linking them back we're doing that
contact tracing work and we've been we
have continued importation and all of
them involve quite a lot of work to make
sure we stop people from transmitting to
others and that's that's what we're
going to continue to do as long as we
possibly can just what's going on in
school what are you recommending schools
they talk about enhance cleaning there
all of them being ordered to do that is
directed by their ministry and we've
been this was some weeks ago when we
first had concerns about somebody who
had been into school so this has gone
out to all of the superintendents of
schools around the province I think the
one thing that we're looking forward to
is a little bit of a break with March
Break coming at the end of this week and
and schools as a setting I will also say
that you know children have been
relatively spared in this outbreak and
and that's a really positive thing you
know a relief we don't yet know the role
that they play in transmitting
infections to others we know for example
with influenza young people can be very
efficient transmitters without getting
very sick themselves doesn't appear to
be that type of a risk with this virus
so far but we are obviously watching
that very carefully so
I think there's a lot of really good
work being done in schools around the
province and just to put it in context
in terms of the numbers that we
announced we're announcing every Friday
the number of tests we did last week we
had more than doubled the previous
period in that set of tests we did about
two thousand eight hundred three tests
and about two thousand and eight
individuals and I think it's fair to say
already this week this is our most
significant week ever so we've done more
than we had the previous week and we
have created new capacity for that and
what we have are 32 positive cases
amongst a testing group which had to
meet the test the standard of the test
which is to to have respite to have
symptoms to be symptomatic and often
travel history or linked to travel
history so that's the group of people
were testing and to date we have 32
tests and at 32 positive tests and we
have more will be informing people every
single day that that happens up to
someone who was in suppose we get the
energy set in 14 test usage been around
the in-floor couldn't find the hand
sanitizer in the head any hand sanitizer
in it apparently rotor and filter which
prompts the question how well provision
is the health care system with
respirators masks and hand sanitizers
mr. plenty are we scrambling to find it
what is this state of affairs at the
moment this is something we've been
paying attention to for some time and
you know all of the health authorities
all of the facilities that we have all
of our health care facilities are
stepping up and you know it's not
uncommon we have heard of things being
stolen masks being taken away we do have
a pandemic stockpile that we have
started to use we have a process
provincially for organizing that we have
a process nationally to make sure that
we have the supplies that we need in the
healthcare system
from the long-term care homes community
physicians and hospitals it's not
perfect and there's sometimes challenges
and individual settings but the message
has certainly gone out and we are
purchasing with our colleagues across
the country to make sure that we have
what we need in the system ASIS before
were overwhelmed
well there's a good question the way
that we're doing our scenario planning
and what we have seen in other places is
that it doesn't happen across the
province at once so we need contingency
planning to make sure that we are able
to support the areas that are having
outbreaks and so there's no magic number
and I think we all know that our
hospitals are working at a hundred one
hundred and eight percent particularly
this time of year and one of the reasons
that we are being so adamant about
breaking those chains of transmission
and keeping as much as we can trying to
prevent any transmission is because we
are still at the end of influenza season
so we know that our hospital beds are
fuller than they are at other times of
the year having said that all of the
hospitals have plans for decanting so
less urgent people finding temporary
places for them in the community we know
there's people that are in our hospitals
that don't need to be there for the care
but are there because there's no place
for them to go and there are provisions
for being able to do that
there's also provisions for slowing down
the people coming into the hospital so
whether it's a delaying like elective
surgeries things like that so those are
the plans that people are looking at I
think if we look at our numbers we have
32 people we have three people right now
who are in hospital and most people that
we have had so far in BC have been able
to be managed safely at home we're gonna
go for the phones now starting with
Tom's Ilic followed by Robin Gill
hello Tom's at Eric actually uh are you
looking at some point recommending
wholesale school closures or perhaps an
early or extended spring break those are
definitely possibilities that we have in
our toolkit as I said it's hard to know
how effective school closures are for
this particular infection I know many
other places are doing that as a way to
keep people away from each other and
what we know are congregated settings
there are other things that we can do to
make schools safer during this type of
an outbreak things like separating kids
in the classes the enhanced hand hygiene
and for children they enhance cleaning
but the challenge is if we do closed
schools making sure that children are
able to continue with their education
and that they're not congregating in
other settings which would be
counterintuitive and wouldn't allow us
to have the not the control but the
supervision of children that we do have
in schools so these are all things that
we consider we're not at the point where
we need that now I will say that the
fact that we have a two-week March Break
coming up is a little bit of relief in
that people have parents already have
plans for what to do with with the kids
for those period of time and then we'll
see we'll see where we are in the in the
community cases that we have and see
where we are globally with with the the
outbreak as this evolved
robbing Miguel followed by Camille
things I'm dr. Henry G dr. Henry do you
think that more residents of Linn Valley
could have this new coronavirus and
could it be a similar situation at other
care homes and we may not realize it I
the investigation at Linn Valley is
ongoing and I know there are other both
health care workers and residents have
been tested some of them have tested
negative but there are other tests
ongoing and so I can't say but I expect
there likely would be one or more others
in the coming days that will know more
about we are looking very carefully at
all of the long-term care facility oat
breaks that we've had and retesting in
some cases looking at other care homes
that are linked and you know right now I
don't have any any indication that there
is ongoing transmission of kovat 19 at
any other care homes but that's
obviously something where we're watching
very carefully we do have an ongoing
process every year during influenza
season that's very sensitive for
checking for in respiratory outbreaks in
long-term care homes and we're up to a
sorry I didn't look at the numbers but
we've had over a hundred again this year
so this is something that is not unusual
for for care homes there there they know
how to do manage outbreaks and detect
outbreaks so all of the health
authorities are working very carefully
and we're looking at that I mean it is
very much a concern of ours followed by
Jane sad for North Shore news hi dr.
Henry what details can you provide about
this gentleman at the care home in terms
of his age and whether he had any
pre-existing chronic conditions or any
kind of condition at all yes he was a
man in his 80s and he had a number of
underlying health conditions
unfortunately so in that risk group for
people who were
who are more likely to have severe
disease with this having said that you
know I understand he was an active
member of the community there and he
will be sorely missed what / - Jane and
then Isabelle lamb hi it's Jane side
with the North Shore news just to follow
up on that question the the other person
who is ill at the link Valley care
center can can you give any details on
them are they also in their 80s they
also have underlying health conditions
and what is their condition right now
sure the other person who's tested
positive the other resident has tested
positive is a woman in her 70s also as
many people do in long-term care homes
has some underlying conditions but her
condition is stable right now thank you
hi dr. Henry on this question is for
business procedures so several students
are rich change such as service I can
come and Tim Hortons have temporarily
stopped serving beverages and we use the
whole month if there's an appropriate
person answer and are there any other
changes yes I saw that when I was in the
Starbucks on the weekend I you know I
I'm not sure that it makes a difference
but I think it's it's it's one thing to
avoid I guess contaminating with
droplets but the more important things
are the washing your hands as you know
as I mentioned earlier we don't actually
get sick ourselves from the droplets
that are on surfaces or on our hands we
get sick when we inoculate ourselves
with them in our eyes or our mouth or
nose so the the importance of
hand-washing can't be overemphasized and
you know that that's the most important
thing and I think businesses need to
look at how they can function should
they have people who are sick with this
or who are in asked to self isolate and
looking at ways that they can enhance
social distancing from amongst their
members are people that they are their
employees um so we want to there have
been some companies have already taken
some measures things around enhance
cleaning and that's something that would
be appropriate in in places like
Starbucks or other coffee shops or
restaurants also whether other
businesses can look at reducing travel
if they is non-essential particularly
international travel forgoing that for
the time being looking at virtual
meetings obviously it's not for
everybody but making sure that that you
can continue your business and have
people work from home if that's possible
things like that our measures that need
to be looked at right now Cindy and
Cindy know dr. Henry is there any
explanation for the fact that there's
been no cases on Vancouver Island and
secondly is there any advice for
religious leaders who are handing out
say host:and and wine at mass to
hundreds of of people yeah so the reason
why we don't have cases on Vancouver
Island I don't know we have had people
who have been closed contacts and there
have been returning travelers who've
been monitored by public health and
thankfully no one yet has tested
positive on Vancouver Island or in the
north though there have been people in
all of all over British Columbia who
have returned from cruises for example
or return from travel and have been in
isolation so it's not like we're not
looking for it in those other places as
well in terms of you know the host
passing the cup now is the time that we
need to take some precautions around
that and putting it in people's hands
being careful about how you do it not
sharing the cup those are things that
I'm will be asking and have been talking
to religious leaders about in the coming
days hi dr. Henry I'm what steps are
being taken to protect vulnerable
populations so people like the homeless
or people who are in cars incarcerated
what's being what's not being taken to
prevent them from becoming infected
these are obviously areas of concern so
far we have not had issues around
because we have not had a lot of
transmission in our communities we've
not had issues in our in our jails or
correctional facilities there is as part
of our all of government approach we are
now being able to reach out more
systematically to those areas and there
are things that we do around prevention
around assessing people that are coming
in and out of those centers that will be
put in place in terms of the homeless
populations or people who are Street
entrenched those are also plans we're
looking at right now we've connected
with a number of the groups that support
people in those communities and looking
how we can what measures are best to
protect them there's information that
they need right now they're not the the
at-risk group that we're seeing but we
want to be prepared should somebody have
an exposure for sure and if you look at
the plan that's a key part of what we
expect what we've seen so far if you
look at the cases as we've reviewed them
here is what most of the cases the
majority of the cases have been linked
to international travel and so in
general people who travel
internationally are not a vulnerable
population although that's not always
the case we had one case of some of a
couple in their 80s and an individual
who tested positive one in their
eighties is currently a Vancouver
General Hospital so what the situation
is now and what it might be in the
future are different and certainly a
huge part of the plan and the
preparation that we presented on Friday
and that we're working on now is to
ensure that vulnerable populations are
protected most especially of course
seniors and others in long-term care
they're approximately 29,000 seniors and
publicly funded long-term care and BC
and they're obviously the central focus
of this as are people who are in acute
care but other vulnerable populations
and you saw it on Friday in the
discussion of people with chronic
diseases people who who are inadequately
housed or homeless etc are obviously
also vulnerable populations people who
have issues with addiction so all of
those are part of our our planning going
forward hi cruise ships are a major
concern right now but what about risk
they're posed by commercial vessels such
as freighters in ports of Vancouver
Delta and Prince Rupert where crews
often come ashore or visit the community
after they dot our health authorities
monitoring and testing the International
crew members and also the local dock
workers and are there any quarantines or
self isolation right now on ships the
short answer is to the first question is
yes and the second question is no there
is a very detailed process that has been
in place for a long time around all of
the ships that come in to our facilities
across the province and it's involved
with Transport Canada and the quarantine
service at the public health agency of
Canada so the the Mariner the the ship's
captain needs to fill out a reform and
that gives an indication of all of the
people on board each vessel so whether
their crew or passengers and which is
the case sometimes and it's they have to
give 96 hour and 24 hour ahead of
arriving in Port notification about the
health conditions of all crew members
and if there's any concern about
respiratory illness then the quarantine
service and CBSA are part of the the
team that go on board the ship to
investigate they do a lot of it remotely
before the ship comes in to port so
is a well-established process for that
that has been updated to ensure that we
have notification around anybody who has
respiratory illness that could be
related to Kovan 19:00 there's a
detailed history of where the ship has
been and as you can imagine it's often
way more than 14 days that they've been
at sea prior to coming in here so the
risk overall from ships in our ports is
very very low there's small numbers of
crew and most of these ships and the
type of work that is done on the docks
where it's mostly outside where there's
you know very little face-to-face
contact is not a risky not as risky an
environment that we would be as
concerned about we do know this process
is working we have received
notifications as we have over the years
for a variety of different things from
leprosy to tuberculosis to many other
conditions that people may have on board
these ships and we've seen it had a
number of investigations in the last few
weeks since this started that people had
concerns that crew members had
respiratory illnesses none of them have
been related to kovat 19 and we've been
working with the port authorities and
with CBSA and Transport Canada to make
sure that those processes remain and
continue to be robust I do we know yet
whether either of the health care
workers had worked in other facilities
in recent weeks yes we do know that the
the initial health care worker has
worked at a number of well - I believe
other facilities and there is
investigation obviously ongoing in those
facilities to determine exactly who had
contact with whom whether she worked
when she was ill or not and that's
that's part of the investigation that's
ongoing now
penny Davalos I think thank thanks dr.
Henry so I'm just was hoping you could
clarify the number of active cases that
we have right now so you said 32 cases
is that in total that we've tested
positive from since the beginning and
were there actually any new cases that
you've determined from Lin Valley care
center today it or is it just the two
that we already knew about played area
well the 32 is is the total number of
positives we've had and four of those
people are considered fully recovered
and have had negative tests but that's
four of the 32 there are no new positive
residents that have been identified from
the Lin valley care center so just the
two people who we identified on Saturday
and one of those people was the the man
who died last night
there has been one additional health
care worker that's been identified from
the Linn Valley care center so we now
have two residents who have tested
positive and two of the health care
workers go back to James and Penny then
Cindy and we'll close with wait we at
Toronto Star hello dr. Henry it's James
side again from the North Shore News
back to the Linn Valley care center I'm
a little bit confused
is it possible do you know at this point
whether the original Community Care case
worker in her 50s whether she could have
actually contracted it from the other
worker that you're now identifying who
was in her 40s or did they both possibly
contract that from somebody else what
can you say about your investigation so
the investigation so far has not
determined that for sure but what we do
know is very likely that both healthcare
workers and both residents that we know
of now we're infected from someone else
within that
setting and the investigation is going
on to determine exactly who and how that
happened - penny - low Cindy Harmon
close with one way leave for Toronto
Star penny hi there thank you for taking
my question
it's just around the level of care for
the people who are currently at the link
valley care center I understand that
there may be difficulties getting people
in there to actually work and care for
the residents what can you tell us about
the level of care for the people who are
still in there and and the help that
they're getting I think and dr. Henry
will respond as well on the second the
medical officer of health who's there is
dr. mark Allison who's in charge of our
investigation in the work of Vancouver
Coastal Health that was their doctor pat
patty Neely is also involved and has
been directly involved on site so there
are obviously going to be challenges in
a care home facing this kind of thing
and so Vancouver Coastal Health is
working very heavily both to recruit
more support for people in the care home
and to ensure that those those issues
are addressed but it's a real challenge
for the workers in the care home right
now and there are challenges that people
are prepared for in their training but
also when it happens in this way present
real challenges so Vancouver Coastal
health and the health system has is
mobilizing today certainly and has been
over the weekend to support the Linn
Valley care center I'll just say that
you know managing and caring for people
during an outbreak particularly the note
break of a new disease where there's
still very much an element of fear for a
lot of people is is a challenging
situation at the best of times and with
some of the staff being sick themselves
and others being isolated at home in
quarantine because of close contacts
it's a very difficult situation for all
of them but I will say you know our
Jarrod's are nurses the physicians who
are supporting them are really going to
great lengths to make sure that all of
the residents in that facility are cared
for and get what they need and it's
kudos to them and particularly you know
I want to really support the the care
aides and the nurses who are doing such
a tremendous job caring for people even
though there's so much concern and
sometimes fear around this virus so
we're supporting them as best we can I
would you mind could you please to 3-8
reiterate um briefly the plan for
hospital beds if and when we have a high
number of seniors from the community or
immune compromised people meeting
hospital beds and just as a follow on
Penny's question there if it's not too
much of a bother can you just go over
the your origin of those 32 cases and in
any way that makes sense one more time
sure we can do that
each Health Authority has established
some time ago we established our
approximately seven weeks ago now our
emergency response team on this issue
that has been led in co-chaired by dr.
Bonnie Henry and and Stephen Brown who's
the Deputy Minister of Health who has
has worked extraordinarily hard on this
question
each Health Authority has established
its own Emergency Operations Center
that's functioning that is that is
responsible within the Health Authority
for directing resources where they need
to go a lot of those resources are
required in the community to date the
vast majority of cases only three of the
cases are in acute care so the vast
majority of demand is in the community
to ensure that we're applying the
resources where they need to be applied
and so that work is happening every day
as the situation evolves and will
continue to occur on top of that there
are all the other parts of government
that that will be applying resources to
this but that has been the organization
the
how thirties put into place as it as as
dr. Henry has said we only have to date
three cases in acute care one as we've
discussed at Vancouver General Hospital
and the other two in the Fraser Health
Authority so those are the three cases
that we have so the the acute care
pressure is not there yet but we're
obviously preparing for that but also we
need to apply appropriate resources in
the community and the situation at Linn
Valley and others demonstrates the need
to do that I agree I think and the plans
are in their fluid but we have done this
before when we've needed to during the
pandemic in 2009 to be able to what we
call decant people out of the facility
if needed so it'll be done on a
case-by-case basis depending on what's
happening in the community so each of
the health authorities is looking at
each of their hospitals and determining
which is the best one to do we obviously
want to take into account other
considerations like is it the main major
trauma hospital and how do we make sure
that we are able to provide those major
trauma services so that maybe that most
people who need hospital care can be
done in another facility so all of those
considerations are being done at a
regional basis and and discuss
provincially as well in terms of the
cases that we've had all of them have
either been imported cases or
transmission within a household with the
exception of our one case when we called
her case 21 which is the person who
works in the in the Linn Valley care
center and the imported cases half of
them 16 have been associated with
somebody who's travelled back from Iran
and sometimes spread within a household
but linked back to travel to Iran five
of them have been linked back to travel
to China six if you include hong kong in
there and then we've also had one person
who resides in seattle and whose contact
and source of infection was likely in
seattle
we have three more questions on the
phone one we later on a star Jane say it
again and close with Lee and Jung and
and of course I forgot to mention but we
have had people who have come back from
being on a cruise as well and two of
them have tested positive um hi dr.
Henry do you know if the care workers at
Linn belly center are wearing and 95
masks or other protective equipment and
also I'm wondering how many sick days do
care workers at the center again so
people at the care center and in all of
our health care facilities are wearing
the appropriate PPE for dealing with
droplet transmitted infections and
there's a whole variety of things that
are that come into play around what is
the appropriate PPE so for most care for
people with covin 19 that includes
gloves a mask a surgical mask eye
protection very important for droplet
spread infections hand hygiene and a
whole raft of things that go with that
so at the care home they'll be wearing
the appropriate PPE for that care that
they're provided there I'm sorry the
second question was so I think when we
take public health actions and we ask
people to be away from work for the
protection of the public and where we
ask people to be in quarantine for
protection of the public we are looking
at the measures that can support them to
be able to do that effectively
regardless of of the sick time and that
will be one of the issues that we have
in our discussions with the federal
government as well but we may remember
for example in 2003 and in other natural
disasters since then the federal
government has changed some rules with
respect access to unemployment insurance
for example and those are issues that
we'll be working on with them five -
questions - Janne SIA and then we had
young okay hi dr. Henry so thank you
again so do you know how quickly from
when this gentleman and his 80s that
died when he developed symptoms - when
he passed away and what the average
turnaround time we're looking at right
now is for protesting I don't actually
have the details of that I know his
symptoms were detected in the
investigation
that occurred on late Thursday early
Friday and the turnaround time for the
tests that are coming from that facility
and from most of the concerning cases
that we have is less than 24 hours I
think that's it on the phone any further
questions here in the car yeah okay
thank you everybody
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you