B.C. Premier set to speak to how government is handling COVID-19

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VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — As B.C. continues to report new COVID-19 cases, the premier is set to hold a special news conference outlining the ‘government-wide response’ to the virus on Friday.

Health Minister Adrian Dix says John Horgan will give an update on what his government has done since January, which is when emergency operations centres were set up in every health authority.

“The intent really is just to inform, in detail, about what we’re doing and what our priorities are,” Dix said Thursday, adding that he expects the update will touch on how concerns over the virus have affected education and the economy.

“The reason the Premier will be speaking is it involves issues beyond the Ministry of Health, to bring people up to date, just to give people a sense of what our response has been over the last more than a month and what it will be in the coming weeks.”

The announcement of the news conference came on the heels of eight more cases being identified in B.C. All but one are linked to patients previously diagnosed.

The minister said the BC Centre for Disease Control has run more tests for the novel coronavirus than any other lab in the country and this past week has been the busiest one yet.

Dix also said it is a priority to make sure health care workers have all of the supplies they need, because masks and hand sanitizers are being stolen from hospitals.

“It is a concern when such things are reported. In general, we don’t see that as widespread, but where it exists, it’s obviously unacceptable and we don’t need to tell people to desist because they know they should desist and not engage in such practices. Obviously, it’s something that we condemn.”

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