Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says B.C. has confirmed 83 new cases of COVID-19.

Three more people have died of the novel coronavirus.

Henry says the province is declaring a public health emergency. B.C. has now identified a total of 186 patients, of whom seven have died.

Two of the new deaths in B.C. are connected to the ongoing outbreak at Lynn Valley Care Centre in North Vancouver and the third is a man in his 80s who died in hospital in the Fraser Health region.

Six of total deaths in BC connected to the North Vancouver care home.