Weekend COVID-19 case count rises past 1,600, with 41 passings in British Columbia

Monday's recap of the weekend COVID-19 counts once again delivered a somewhat eye opening number of cases, with 1,667 new cases of COVID recorded in the province; making for a total of over 47,000 British Columbians diagnosed as having the coronavirus since it arrived in January of this year.

 “Today, we are reporting on three 24-hour periods. From Dec. 18 to 19, we had 652 new cases. From Dec. 19 to 20, we had 486 new cases and in the last 24 hours, we have had a further 529 new cases. 

This represents a total of 1,667 new cases of COVID-19, including 14 epi-linked cases, for a total of 47,067 cases in British Columbia. 

There are 9,718 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. There are 341 individuals currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 80 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation. “Currently, 9,651 people are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases and a further 35,455 people who tested positive have recovered. 

There have been 41 new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 765 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 various Health Authority's reported the following  caseloads over the weekend: 

283 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 1,084 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 21 in the Island Health region, 189 in the Interior Health region, 90 in the Northern Health region, which brings the Northern BC total to 1,599.

There were no new cases of COVID in British Columbia  reported on people who reside outside of Canada.  

Doctor Henry also advised the vaccines have now been delivered to every Health Authority region, with the province sill working towards its deliver program with more information to come as to the logistics of the program.

"Last week, 3,644 front-line health-care workers received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in British Columbia. Over the next two days, vaccine deliveries will arrive in every health region, and public health teams are readying clinics to begin in the coming days."

She and the Minister also spoke to the slow turn towards level of the curve of COVID in the province and the work still required for continued success.

“We are starting to see a levelling in the COVID-19 curve. At the same time, we are also seeing hundreds of new people each day with confirmed cases, many of whom have become severely ill, requiring care and treatment in hospital. 

The people getting sick today contracted the virus days ago, which is why the actions we take today make such a difference to our well-being tomorrow. 

Our health-care workers and front-line teams have been working non-stop to provide care to all those who need it and they are understandably in need of a reprieve. 

Today, on the longest night of the year, let’s do our part to give them the break they deserve. Let’s all share some light for our health-care workers and show them we care for them as much as they care for us. 

Together, let’s make this holiday season a safe season for all of us and do our part to make 2021 brighter, healthier and safer for everyone.”

You can review the Monday statement 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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