Heading towards Election Day weekend, BC's COVID surge recedes for a day with 223 new cases recorded for Friday

As residents across the province prepare to mark a ballot in Saturday's provincial election, there was some slightly more positive news on the latest COVID numbers, with the British Columbia recording 223 new cases of the coronavirus today, still high from the results of only a few months ago, but still better than yesterday's record daily count when we recorded 274 cases.

Today's report was by way of a statement from Dr. Bonnie Henry, the province's Public Health Officer.

“Today, we are reporting 223 new cases, including five epi-linked cases, for a total of 12,554 cases in British Columbia. 

There are 2,009 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, 4,637 people who are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases, and 10,247 people who tested positive have recovered. 

Currently, 75 individuals are hospitalized with COVID-19, 24 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation."

Another element of positive news for the day, was that there were no new passings to report on, the second day in a row for that welcome observation.  

When it comes to the breakdown across British Columbia, the province's Health Authority updated their to date case counts as follows: 4,319 cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 6,864 in the Fraser Health region, 250 in the Island Health region, 662 in the Interior Health region, 371 in the Northern Health region an increase of six from Thursday. 

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

As has been the theme for much of the week, returning to more dedicated effort towards social distancing and following the various COVID measures that are in place made for the theme to take into the weekend from the Doctor.

“In recent days, we have seen a number of new outbreaks of COVID-19 in the community and in long-term care facilities. Contact-tracing teams throughout our province are working around the clock to stop further spread, but it requires all of us to do our part to be successful in these efforts. 

This is our opportunity and the time to take a step back from our social interactions and keep our groups small this weekend. In doing this, we show our appreciation and support for the important work of contact tracers. 

It is also the time to show kindness to those around us. None of us know the stories and experiences of those around us, so let’s make this weekend one of compassion and care for everyone.”

 You can review the COVID-19 report for Friday 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, those past advisories  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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