A teacher in the Fraser Health region is among the 20 cases announced on Thursday, by B.C. provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.
All close contacts have been notified and no children were exposed to the teacher, said Henry. The individual is believed to have contracted the virus from a social interaction outside the school environment.
It’s the second case involving a school teacher in B.C., after the first was announced on June 18. B.C. had originally reopened schools on a part-time and optional basis on June 1, but Thursday marks the final day of classes for students.
“It hasn’t always been easy for everybody,” Henry said. “I really just want to commend everybody for persevering, for working together, for making in-class teaching in these past weeks both possible and safe.”
Two new fatalities were also announced Thursday, involving individuals in long-term care homes, one in Fraser Health and the other in Vancouver Coastal. It increases the province’s death toll to 173.
Of the 20 announced patients, one is an epidemiologically linked case.
There are now 2,869 cases in B.C., but that includes 2,517 people who have recovered, an increase of one since Wednesday. There remains 179 active patients in the province, which includes 15 people in hospital (up by one) and seven in intensive care.
There have been no new health-care facility or community outbreaks in the province’s latest 24-hour stretch.
