What happened: Provincial health officer Bonnie Henry's March 18 update on the extent of COVID-19 in B.C. revealed that there are 45 new cases compared with a day ago, making the new total number of cases 231. The death count remains at seven. The good news is that the daily count today is 54% less than the number yesterday: 83.
Why this matters: Controlling the spread of COVID-19 in the province is important for the health of residents and wrestling down the number of new cases is key in getting the province's economy back up and running.
Vancouver Coastal Health had more than 62% of those cases, or 144. Otherwise, there are:
•58 cases in Fraser Health;
•16 cases in Island Health;
•nine people in Interior Health;
•four people in Northern Health.
There are 13 people in hospital including seven in intensive care. Five people have officially recovered, meaning that they have tested negative for the virus in two consecutive tests. More than 17,000 people have so far been tested.
One of the new cases is in the Haro Park Centre in Vancouver Coastal Health. That is the third seniors' care home in the Lower Mainland that has seen cases. The other two are North Vancouver's Lynn Valley Care Centre, where there is the largest cluster of cases in the province. Hollyburn House in West Vancouver also has multiple cases.
"These are extraordinary times and we took a number of extraordinary measures in the last few days to try and do everything that we can to try and stop the transmission of this virus in our communities and flatten out the curve over the next seven to 10 days," she said, adding that this is the "critical" time period.
"We do know that this virus is spreading in our community and the measures that we are requiring and asking of people are to try and prevent as much of that spread as we can and slow it down as much as we can and protect those people who are most likely to have severe illness from this disease, particularly our seniors and elders, people with compromised immune systems, [and] people with underlying illnesses."
Globally, 214,894 people have been infected and 8,732 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins University Centre for Systems Science and Engineering.
Many retailers have closed, bars and clubs were ordered to close for a one-day time period yesterday, restaurants have been ordered to close except for take-out or delivery unless they are able to maintain "social distancing," or keeping people about six feet away from each other.
Schools have closed. So have entertainment venues and park facilities. Henry yesterday declared a public health emergency in the province, which enables her to direct police. She has ordered that all gatherings that have 50 or more people be cancelled.
