A slight reduction in daily case reports and a reminder of the importance of testing frame the Wednesday COVID report

At the mid-way point of this third week in August, British Columbians can take some solace in the COVID review of the day, which brings a lower case count than that of start of the week, though a number still high above the levels of success found not too long ago.

Today, Health Minister Adrian Dix and Doctor Réka Gustafson took note of daily count of new cases as well as to remind British Columbians of the testing process in the province and it's importance towards success against the virus.

“Today, we are announcing 68 new cases, for a total of 4,745 cases in British Columbia. 

There are 798 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, 2,452 people who are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases, and 3,749 people who tested positive have recovered. 

Currently, 10 individuals are hospitalized with COVID-19, four of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation. 

Across the province the Health Authority totals look as follows:

1,488 cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 2,493 in the Fraser Health region, 158 in the Island Health region, 411 in the Interior Health region, 120 in the Northern Health region which makes for no increase over the last 24 hours.

75 cases of COVID have been recorded in people who reside outside of Canada. 

Of note from today's report, is another day with no new passings to relay to the province.

“There have been no new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 198 deaths in British Columbia. We offer our condolences to everyone who has lost their loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic." 

British Columbia's public health officials put some significant emphasis on the provincial testing process and how it is key to the ongoing efforts to reduce the impact of COVID-19.

 “Testing for COVID-19 is an important part of our provincial pandemic response. We continue to step up the capacity, in each health region and in our labs, to match our public health activities. 

Testing allows us to trace and contain the spread. The tests tell us who is positive for the virus, as well as how far the virus may have spread among close contacts when an outbreak or community cluster occurs. 

We know as the number of new cases increases, demand for testing also goes up. That is why each health region has been working to add further assessment and testing capacity. 

New assessment and testing centres and extended hours of service have been added in the Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health regions to address increases in demand. Today, we have the ability to complete approximately 8,000 tests every day."         

You can review the full report for Wednesday here.   

The BC Centre for Disease control has some valuable Coronavirus notes related to COVID-19 you can explore that information here.

You can learn more about the outbreak from both the Province and the Federal government from the links below:

Federal Government site

British Columbia Government site

The World Health Organization website also offers up the latest advisories on the global situation.

More from  Northern Health can be reviewed here 

You can review our archive of past statements and local information here.

Local governments and organizations have also provided for increased awareness of COVID-19 issues, the string of statements that came quickly at the end of the week can be reviewed here.

For notes from across Canada and British Columbia we have been archiving the latest items through our political portal Darcy McGee

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