As of Friday 11 a.m., there were four people – three patients and one staff member – who had contracted COVID-19 as part of the outbreak at Richmond Hospital, according to the Ministry of Health.
This is double the number reported on Tuesday.
Last Saturday, the Vancouver Coastal Health medical health officer declared an outbreak at the hospital.
An outbreak is declared when the virus spreads within the facility – it’s at the discretion of the medical health officer to make the declaration.
While the province is planning to start resuming elective surgeries – 30,000 have been cancelled across the province – Dr. Bonnie Henry said they would have to proceed with caution where outbreaks have occurred.
“Any facility that has an outbreak will be treated differently – as we know, we need to be very cautious about that,” she told the Richmond News.
On Friday, the province announced 29 new COVID-19 cases in B.C. for a total so far of 2,315. There are 73 people being treated in hospitals with 20 in the intensive care unit.
