Thursday COVID update keeps new cases below 500, comes with some advice for Super Bowl weekend

A slight uptick in the daily report of new cases of COVID in BC and some advice for Super Bowl weekend made for the Thursday update from Doctor Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix.

The latter, with some cautionary words on the need to keep to our current path of reduced contact, which would suggest you won't need to have much in the way of food or drink on hand for the season finale and the NFL's marquee event. 

Today's report was by statement, with the next on camera public briefing scheduled for Friday.

“Today, we are reporting 465 new cases, including three epi-linked cases, for a total of 69,245 cases in British Columbia. 

There are 4,447 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. There are 257 individuals currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 76 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation. 

Currently, 6,943 people are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases and a further 62,078 people who tested positive have recovered. 

There have been six new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 1,240 deaths in British Columbia. We offer our condolences to everyone who has lost their loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Across the province, Health Authorities made note of the following reports for the day:

98 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 234 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 27 in the Island Health region, 54 in the Interior Health region.

There were 52 cases of COVID reported in the Northern Health region, which brings the total number of cases for Northern BC to 3,610 since the virus was first reported in January of 2020.

There were no new cases of COVID in BC reported by people who reside outside of Canada. 

When it comes to vaccinations,  the latest number provided is 145,567 doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered in B.C., 8,097 of which are second doses. That made for 3,421 doses administered since the last update from Wednesday.

Earlier today, the Ministry of Education announced some enhanced measures for school safety related to COVID, including an expanded use of masks for middle and secondary school students, you can review those notes here.

Towards the upcoming weekend which in more normal times would be a very busy one for community bars, clubs and private residences, the health officials noted that this is a year for reduced numbers and low key gatherings.

“As we make plans for the weekend ahead, let’s ensure we don’t make the Super Bowl a superspreading day, by making safe choices. This is especially important given we are still learning about the full impact of the variants of concern now in our communities. 

Here in B.C., our curve is slowly moving downward. With each day we keep our wall strong and show compassion and kindness to those around us, we can keep the trend going.”

You can can review more of today's provincial statement here. 

BC CDC data for British Columbia as of February 4, 2020

BC CDC data for the Northern Health region as of February 4, 2020

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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