BC's deadliest day: 28 deaths attributed to COVID most from long term care; as case count back on the rise with 723 cases recorded for Thursday

After a glimmer of hope for the future on Wednesday and the announcement of a vaccine plan for BC, the cold hard reality of the COVID fight came back to the forefront today, with the province recording its deadliest day yet from the virus, with the announcement of the passing of 28 more British Columbians from COVID-19.

The 26 of them seniors and elders who for the most part were living in long term care facilities across the province.

The commentary on the day came from Doctor Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix, who addressed a range of quesitons following the statistical review of the day.

“Today, we are reporting 723 new cases of COVID-19, including one epi-linked case, for a total of 40,060 cases in British Columbia. 

There are 9,524 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. There are 346 individuals currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 83 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation. 

Currently, 11,947 people are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases and a further 28,948 people who tested positive have recovered.

“There have been 28 new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 587 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 Health Authority's provided the following account of the cases for the day:

135 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 456 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 10 in the Island Health region, 82 in the Interior Health region, 40 in the Northern Health region, which makes for a total of 1,199 cases for Northern BC since January. 

Towards the road ahead, patience was the key theme of the afternoon from the two top provincial health officials, who noted of the vaccine roll out plan and how it will be delivered.

“We don’t want to fall back just as we begin this push forward into the final leg of what has been a gruelling challenge. 

Despite how tired we might be and how much we all want to be able to resume the activities that we enjoy and are important to us, right now we need to continue to stand together by staying apart, follow the public health orders and use all of our layers of protection until the vaccine is available for all of us. 

The process to receive, distribute and administer a COVID-19 vaccine is complex and in these early stages, changing quickly. That is why our provincewide immunization framework has been built to allow us to be flexible, adaptable and in step with these changes. 

The sequence for immunization has been carefully considered based on our three pandemic goals: to protect those who are most vulnerable, to save lives and to minimize the disruption within our communities. 

Each of us will get our turn and until then, let’s keep these goals in mind. Your turn may be next month or farther down the road, but for every person who gets a vaccine, we are all a little safer." 

As for the more hopeful quest of a return to more normal times, they offered the following:

"There will be a time when we can take off our masks, when we can hug our loved ones and travel to see friends. We will get there, but we are not through this storm yet. So, for now, we need to stay small, stay local and help each other to push back on COVID-19.”

You can review Thursday's update from the Doctor and Health Minister 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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