China says the daily count of new virus cases has fallen significantly to 397, with another 109 people dying of the disease, most in the epicenter of Hubei province. The figures announced Saturday bring the total number of cases in mainland China to 76,288 with 2,345deaths, as strict quarantine measures and travel bans continue to contain the disease that emerged in China in December and has since spread world-wide. The daily figure is down from 889 on Friday. South Korea has become the newest front in a global outbreak, reporting Friday that 204 people had been infected, quadruple the number

Sexual assault charges have been laid against a man employed as a physiotherapist at a Chilliwack health clinic, and police say there may be more victims. Police say 38-year-old Sanjay Amrutkar was arrested without incident for offences alleged to have occurred lasts August and September while he was working as a physiotherapist. He's charged with two counts of sexual assault and has been released from custody pending a court appearance next month. Police say their investigators are aware that there may be other victims who haven't reported an encounter and they encourage those people to

Premier John Horgan says he believes the ``vast majority'' of residents across northern B.C. want to resolve a dispute with Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs opposed to the Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline. Horgan says his government is ready to talk with the chiefs but is challenged by their refusal to meet unless RCMP and pipeline officials withdraw entirely from their traditional territories. The Premier says other Wet'suwet'en people are beginning to speak out about possible benefits of the pipeline. He says his government remains ``at the ready'' to find a way forward.

The World Health Organization is concerned about new cases of COVID-19 with no clear links to travel in China or other confirmed cases. A multiplying caseload in South Korea is showing the ease with which the new coronavirus can spread. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says health officials need to act quickly to contain a further spread of the virus. Globally, more than 76-thousand people have been infected in 27 countries, and more than 22-hundred have died.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says it's been two weeks and now it's time for the barricades on rail lines and other major transportation routes to come down. He says in a democracy, people have a right to have their say but the situation is "unacceptable and untenable." The blockades, particularly one on a critical east-west rail line in Ontario, are responses by Indigenous people and supporters of the hereditary chiefs of the Wet'suwet'en Nation who oppose a major natural-gas pipeline project.

Almost eight months after a strike halted Western Forest Products operations across Vancouver Island, workers at the Duke Point sawmill near Nanaimo are preparing to head back to the job. The union representing workers at the sawmill confirms employees have been recalled and have been taking part in safety training, prior to startup at the mill -- which is set for Monday. Western Forest Products and the United Steelworkers Union reached a deal earlier this month resolving the job action that began last July 1st. Steelworkers Local president Brian Butler says the company still hasn't announced

Police in Vancouver are investigating after a float plane was badly damaged in what appears to have been a botched theft. Const. Tanya Visintin says officers were called to the city's waterfront about 3:30 a.m. after a report of a plane.She says a man had begun moving the Harbour Air float plane, but crashed it into a second aircraft.Visintin doesn't say if the first plane ever got into the air, but she says its wing was torn off in the collision. No one was injured and no arrests have been made.Visintin says police are looking for a suspect.

Canadian passengers who spent weeks stuck in their cabins aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship have arrived in Cornwall, Ontario. They were flown out of Japan overnight, then bused to a NAV Canada centre, where they will spend an additional quarantine period. Forty-seven Canadians are still in Japan receiving treatment for the new coronavirus.Also today, the Canadian evacuees from Wuhan, China are being released from quarantine at CFB Trenton, Ontario.Health Minister Patty Hajdu (HY'-doo) says the government is helping them with their travel plans.

Another case of the coronavirus has been diagnosed in British Columbia. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says a woman in her 30s has been diagnosed with COVID-19 after returning from Iran. Henry says the woman's case is relatively mild and a number of her close contacts have already been put in isolation. This brings the number of cases of COVID-19 in B.C. to six. Henry said earlier this week that four of the five people already diagnosed with the virus were symptom free. The fifth person, a woman in her 30s who returned from Shanghai, China, is in isolation at her home in B.C.'s In