B.C. health officials report 23 new cases of COVID-19 and 3 new deaths

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced Wednesday B.C. has recorded 23 new cases of COVID-19 and three more people have died of the disease.

All threedeaths were in long-term care, she said. One was in the Island Health region and the other two were in Vancouver Coastal Health.

In all, B.C. has recorded 2,255 confirmed cases of COVID-19.Of that number,1,494 people have recovered from the disease.

Across B.C., 74 people with COVID-19 are in hospital, 19 of whom are in intensive care.

There were no new outbreaks in long-term care or acute care facilities. There are 22 such outbreaks active as of Wednesday afternoon: 17 at long-term care facilities and five in acute care units.

Seventeen long-term care home outbreaks have been declared over.

Premier John Horgan is scheduled to speak at 3 p.m. PT about the next phase of B.C.'s pandemic response, now that the curve of coronavirus infections has flattened and hospitalization rates have remained low.