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B.C.’s top doctor says the province is nearly caught up on its testing for the novel coronavirus, eliminating a backlog that had accumulated over the last seven to 10 days.
That means health officials have a good idea of what is happening in communities when it comes to the spread of COVID-19, said provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.
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COVID-19: Virus testing backlog in B.C. expected to be cleared by Tuesday Back to video
On Monday, Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix announced 48 new confirmed cases of the virus, bringing the provincial total to 472. As of Saturday, 21,296 tests had been completed, up from 17,912 on Friday and 6,326 on March 13. Ontario had completed 28,506 tests as of Monday morning, and as of Sunday afternoon Washington State had tested 30,875 people.
Dix said the number of tests administered in B.C. has steadily increased since the end of February, and the province is now doing about 3,000 tests per day.
“We’ve done in the last couple of days, each day, a record number of tests,” he said, noting that number will continue to increase.
