B.C. has had a total of 64 cases of the novel coronavirus COVID-19, health officials said March 13. That is 11 more cases than March 12, and the cases include three administrative staff members who work at Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver.
Provincial health officer Bonnie Henry said the staff members did not have contact with hospital patients.
Foreign travel continues to be a common factor in many of the cases, as five of the new cases are related to travel to Iran, Egypt, the Philippines and Mexico. One of the new cases is connected with the outbreak at Lynn Valley Care Centre seniors' home in North Vancouver. The source of infection for the other two new cases is under investigation.
Henry said that the government is officially banning all events that would attract more than 250 people. Yesterday, she said that the government was advising that these events be cancelled. Upping that advice to be a ban means that organizers should have access to funding from insurance, she said.
Another move aimed at slowing the spread of the virus came from the federal government today, as it stepped in to ban all cruise ships that carry more than 500 people from docking at any Canadian port.
Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix also yesterday urged all British Columbians not to leave Canada for any non-essential travel, even for a quick trip to the U.S., and that if they do, that they would be required to self-isolate on their return. That order does not apply to long-haul truckers, who are deemed essential-service workers.
"This is evolving very quickly," she said today. "People need to judge their own risk about being caught up in quarantines. Now, it's a quarantine here [for people who return from abroad]."
She specifically addressed whether so-called snowbirds, or Canadians who spend time in the winter in the U.S. should return.
"People need to understand the risk in the place that they are," she said. "Many snowbirds in parts of the U.S. may be in places that are not having a lot of this. If they do come back, if people do come back home, then across the country now, they will be asked to self-isolate when they get home and we'll monitor them carefully because we know the risk in the U.S. is also very very variable and is moving."
B.C. confirmed its first case of the coronavirus on January 28.
