BC announces 12 new COVID-19 cases, death toll rises to 152

| May 21, 2020 in COVID-19

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Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced 12 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, with 307 cases being considered as active.

Three new COVID-19 related deaths were also announced, those three new deaths come from the Fraser and Vancouver Coastal health regions and two were residents of long-term care homes. 

BC's death toll now sits at 152.  

Across the province, 43 people are currently in hospital with COVID-19, with just eight patients in critical care.

Breaking down the hospitalizations by region, 19 are in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 21 are in the Fraser Health region, with one patient in each of the Interior Health, Island Health and Northern Health regions.

A new community outbreak has been identified at Matsqui Institution, a federal prison in Abbotsford, where one person has tested positive for the virus.

Meanwhile, the outbreak at the United Poultry processing plant in Vancouver has been declared over.

Dr. Henry warned that a second wave of the virus is likely, as recently seen in South Korea, where an infected nightclub customer spread the disease to hundreds of people. 

"Even if there is no incident of rapid spreading, there's a seasonality to influenza and other coronaviruses, so I can say with some certainty that there will be increased cases in the fall," explained Henry.

Earlier Thursday, the province announced BC Parks campsites will be closed to non-BC residents this summer.

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