For the second straight day, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry confirmed seven new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases to 46 in BC.

During her daily news conference on Wednesday, Dr. Henry announced that two more health-care workers from the North Vancouver long-term care facility have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

One is a man in his 20s who lives in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, the other is a woman in her 50s who lives in the Fraser Health region.

Both are in isolation at home.

Photo Credit: Canadian Press.

According to Dr. Henry, three of the other new cases are linked to Egypt, including the first reported case in the Vancouver Island Health Authority.

In the Fraser Health Region, health officials have identified two new cases of community transmission through BC’s influenza surveillance testing.

One is a woman in her 60s who has been hospitalized, and the other is a man in his 60s who is in isolation at home.

“A detailed public health investigation is being done on both those cases, as well as the two we identified yesterday, to try and determine the origin of their infection,” said Henry.

In a bit of positive news, three people previously hospitalized with COVID-19 in the Lower Mainland have now been released.

However, on Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) did officially declared the outbreak a pandemic.