My name is Adrian Dixon.

The BC Minister of health.

On beside me is our provincial health officer, Dr Dr Bonnie Henry.

We're honored to be here on the traditional territories of the conduit speaking people the Song G's and Esquire First Nations For the remainder of the week, we're gonna move to a regular time for daily briefings on the covert 19 questions that would be a 3 30 The first briefing will be tomorrow in Vancouver 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.

Teoh t hear that one of the residents of the Lin Valley care home who was infected with Cove it 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 Lin Valley Care Center.

We also have a number of new cases, and I'll start with talking about what is going on at the Lin Valley Care Center were up to 32 confirmed cases here in British Columbia.

Now, um, as you know, uh, the Vancouver Coastal Health has been on site at the Lin 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 since we know.

So far, two residents have tested positive.

There's ongoing testing, an 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 Covert 19.

She's a woman in her forties who lives in the Fraser Valley, a Fraser Health Authority area, and she is home in isolation right now.

In addition, we have two new close contacts of a case.

21 our community case Ah male in his teens and a male in his fifties, and they both reside in that freezer 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 into into British Columbia.

Ah, female in her fifties, who has returned from travel to Iran and a male in his thirties who was 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.

Um, I I will also given 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're requiring people toe have negative tests before.

We say that there 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 to people of in the Fraser Health Region, and they're both in stable condition and one person who remains in the I.

C.

U at 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 Cove in 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 ableto clean their hands regularly, and we'll be monitoring those situations.

Of course, as the's going, um, 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 on DDE.

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're being pleased that the Canadian government has recognized the risk right now that traveling on cruise ships does, um, does give people And, UM, we know that there is the Grand Princess off California.

There's been some cruise ships in Egypt as well, where there have been cases.

And it's just a kn environment where people cannot separate from each other sufficiently to prevent transmission of respiratory viruses.

And with the ongoing Oprah 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 federal government has upgraded it to a Level four warning, which is to advise against going on cruise.

Cruise is in the near future.

Um, the others 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 closer environments indoor environments where people do gatherings where people share meals where people spend a lot of time together, enclosed 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 toe 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 and 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, 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, too.

Two 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 canceled 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 a covert 19.

Testing is done by our lab, which is a credited 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, the 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 Lin Valley care home in our hearts to go out to the family, to the care family, to all of the people who work the Land Valley.

Careful, this is Ah, 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.

Half of the cases, five involved in some way traveled to China and obviously traveled from other places.

And then there's the significant issues that we see at the Glen Valley Care Homes.

I wanted to say that what this shows is what was set on Friday and the detailed briefing we gave to reporters in the community is that some people are very vulnerable.

People with preexisting 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 that from Hu bei problems that somewhere over 14% was the mortality rate for people over 80 who who have coded 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 and 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 wanted, of course, to reiterate that today Dr Henry has talked about some of the other issues.

But we also want continue to praise people who were providing care around the province and all in all of the work they do.

People involved in this matter from Dr Henry of the people that BC Center for Disease Control to health authorities People work in care homes are enormously committed to people and we want to acknowledge today all of the work that they do and all of the work being done in the sport they're getting for members of the community.

On some of the broader policy questions that you know, the federal government made its announcement surround cruise ship.

We wanted to go thank the federal government for increasing their warning to people traveling on cruise ships and for their efforts.

Thio 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 they say, We're going to do regular briefings at a regular time every day for the remainder of this weekend into the future, from Monday to Friday and on weekends, if necessary.

And those briefings this week will take place at 3 30 so that the public and all of you can plan for that.

Thank you.

So we're gonna start with the questions in Victoria that go on to the phone to those on the phone.

Police star, one press star want to queue up less lane first, and then von What, Doctor?

If Canadians are advised not to get on cruise ships, should cruise ships be docking in Canada and related to that?

Who makes the call on that question, which I'm sure is being discussed?

Is it Dr Tamil yourself?

So that 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, a swell S o.

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 you.

I have offered certainly my advice.

Um, and I know there's 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're in a safer place.

That's question on that.

Do you have any indication when they might make that call?

I expect it'll becoming if not this week, but within the next within the coming days.

For sure there's ongoing discussions, and it's a challenging thing, you know, we know that this will impact businesses both here in Victoria.

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 currently off the coast of California.

The government of Canada is taking this extraordinary step, as you can imagine of of essentially evacuating people who are asymptomatic to Trenton.

And, uh, 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 the Diamond Princess in the Grand Princess.

So that's why the communication today is really important for them and for people to understand that this evacuation on the approach the government can is taking to this evacuation.

Now that this warning has been given me not continue to be the approach.

So people have to take that that information they received from the government can it very seriously over the bond that Keith and then Bender and then Mike the uh, this Wall Street Journal noted on the weekend regulations, and it's a good story that we've done well here, which, unfortunately our neighbor just across the border has been.

Are we doing enough to deal with risk help People traveling back and forth between Washington State and British Columbia, given that they really don't know, haven't done what we've done in terms of identifying risk and how far fairy that arrives here a couple times a day from Washington state, we have border crossings.

Are we doing enough?

Could we do more?

Should we do?

I'll start by saying, Even though a CZ 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.

A boat, the spread.

They're in the same way as I, as we have seen in places like Iran, for example.

But it is clear that there their strategy has been a challenging one in the U.

S.

And we do need there's no way we could stop people going back and forth there.

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, in here and across the country, both of our countries.

Anybody who's traveled, 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 wouldn't be a day gone by where I don't say 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 fires, but we know there are other things 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 could be assessed and tested if needed and cared for safely.

This is just, you know, I believe in.

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, uh, 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.