B.C.’s health minister says nearly 600 people have been hired as contact tracers to follow up on chains of transmission in the province.

Adrian Dix made that comment as health officials reported a new record 425 cases of COVID-19 on Thursday.

“In the past week 57 positions have been filled across all health authorities,” he said on Thursday. “To date, there have been 580 total hires. This surpasses the initial target which was 500 announced in August and represents 95.3 per cent of the increased target of 608 positions.”

“In terms of new candidates, 78 are in the offer process and 309 are in the interview process. So the contact tracing initiative is going well. I wanted to note that 47 contact tracers have been redeployed to Fraser Health to support their efforts there.”

Dix says the B.C. government now hopes to hire 800 contact tracers across the province.

“In addition to those 800 positions, the ministry has provided approval to the First Nations Health Authority to hire 76 new community health representative positions to support culturally safe contact tracing efforts within First Nations communities,” he added.

These positions are expected to last until March though it can be extended, if needed.