BC's COVID case count spiking higher and higher, hitting 800 cases on Thursday

The daily numbers of late from Doctor Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix are making for an alarming spike in the volume of positive case counts announced, with the Thursday review from the two public health officials cracking the 800 case count mark.

“Today, we are reporting a total of 800 new cases, including six epi-linked cases, for a total of 94,769 cases in British Columbia. 

There are 5,856 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, with 9,964 people under public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases. A further 87,351 people who tested positive have recovered. 

Of the active cases, 306 individuals are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 79 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation. 

 There have been five new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 1,446 deaths in British Columbia."

Across the province, the Regional Health Authority's outlined the following numbers: 264 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 381 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 45 in the Island Health region, 50 in the Interior Health region, 

There have been 58 new cases of COVID-19 reported in the Northern Health region, which increases our total since January 2020 to 5,699 since January of 2020 .

Health Officials also noted that two new cases of COVID in BC were reported by people who reside outside of Canada. 

The variant story for today noted that there have been 191 new confirmed COVID-19 cases that are variants of concern in our province, for a total of 1,772 cases. 

Of the total cases, 215 are active and the remaining people have recovered. This includes 1,549 cases of the B.1.1.7 (U.K.) variant, 47 cases of the B.1.351 (South Africa) variant and 176 cases of the P.1 (Brazil) variant. 

The vaccination program continues to build in the province. To date, 610,671 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca-SII COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in B.C., 87,212 of which are second doses. Vaccine appointment bookings are now open for people 75 or older, and Indigenous peoples over age 55. 

Today's review also had some news of note for those seeking guidance on how the province would approach the upcoming religious holidays of Easter, with Doctor Henry charting that course today.

“Through the ongoing dialogue with a wide range of faith leaders, we have also developed a limited variance to the gathering and events order allow for indoor services on four days between Sunday, March 28 and Thursday, May 13, 2021. 

Each faith can identify the days most appropriate for their faith – whether for Easter, Passover, Ramadan or Vaisakhi. 

The maximum capacity is 50 people, or 10% of the worship space capacity – whatever is less. There are a number of safety requirements and protocols that must be met by worship service organizers and attendees alike."

More on those changes can be found here.

Today also found some welcome news for those with family in long term care facilities, with a loosening of visitation regulations coming into effect as of April 1st.

However, with the current level of COVID cases spiking, and in particular in the early adult age groupings, the Province has decided to try to reduce the urge to ignore the range of measures in place towards social distancing and such at public gatherings, announcing an increase in the fines that can be assessed to those who choose not to follow the rules.

Further notes on  Thursday's report can be reviewed here.

BC CDC Data for BC For March 25 2021

BC CDC Data for Northern Health Region For March 25 2021

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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