834 new cases recorded Wednesday, as COVID results continue to climb in British Columbia

The call to bend the curve is finding some challenges of late with another day of rising counts of COVID across the province to 834 on the day, along with a dozen new deaths to report from Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix.

“Today, we are reporting 834 new cases of COVID-19, including three epi-linked cases, for a total of 34,728 cases in British Columbia. 

There are 8,941 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. There are 337 individuals currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 79 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation. 

Currently, 10,201 people are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases and 24,424 people who tested positive have recovered. 

There have been 12 new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 469 deaths in British Columbia. We offer our condolences to everyone who has lost their loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic."

Across the province the regional health authorities recorded the following in the last 24 hours

174 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 529 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 20 in the Island Health region, 66 in the Interior Health region, 45 cases in the Northern Health region, which brings the Northern region total to 905 cases since January.

There were No new cases of COVID recorded in  people who reside outside of Canada. 

Towards some guidance to the current spike in case counts the public health officials noted the following:

“We recognize that COVID-19 is taking a toll on all of us. After many months of restrictions on who we can see, where we can go and what we can do, we are all feeling the fatigue. 

Many, many people are doing all they can to help in our COVID-19 response. Yet, this is the time for all of us to do that little bit more, to do our part to slow the spread in our communities until vaccines are available – in a few short weeks. 

This virus moves quickly and easily between us. We are continuing to see unchecked transmission in many places, despite the efforts of our public health teams and contact tracers. That is why, during this second surge, the need to follow the provincial health orders is so important. 

We need to stay local, we need to stay small and we need to avoid those public settings that, right now, are a risk for all of us. 

We strongly recommend and ask everyone in B.C. to not travel right now, unless it is absolutely essential for work or medical care. This includes travel within B.C. and between provinces. 

A provincial health officer (PHO) order cannot stop you from getting into your car or onto a plane, but I am asking in the strongest of terms to not travel unless it is absolutely necessary. 

If a family member is planning to return home for the holidays, then it is critical they follow all of the orders and guidelines here in B.C., which means no socializing and no gatherings of any kind.

From the outset, we have spoken about the importance of getting outside and staying active. However, we remind everyone that no matter where those activities are taking place, there is to be no travel and no spectators. 

We have seen that if we maintain our distance, we can be outside, we can go to parks and play games without close contact. 

However, we continue to see that indoor group activities – whether for fitness or team sports – are much higher risk right now. The details of sports activities have been added to the order on events and gatherings. 

This order is available on the PHO website."

 

You can review Wednesday's update 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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