13 new COVID-19 cases reported in B.C.

British Columbia's top doctor says old-fashioned contact tracing, not an app, is the primary tool that's been helping public health officials find people who could be infected with COVID-19.

Dr. Bonnie Henry says officials are accustomed to tracking people who could have come into contact with carriers of other diseases and COVID-19 is no different, except that 600 people have been focused on the task.

Henry says an app would be more useful for when people may have spread or contracted the illness in a large crowd of people.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promoted a voluntary app called COVID Alert, which will be tested in Ontario before being rolled out across the country.

Henry says keeping the number of contacts low as well as physical distancing and hand washing have prevented a surge in cases in B.C.

The province reported 13 more cases today, for a total of 2,835, as well as one death, bringing the number of fatalities to 170 since the start of the pandemic.