Monday COVID update for British Columbia, one part statistical review, one part forecast of better times ahead

Despite a daily case count that doesn't seem to have changed much in the last month, Doctor Bonnie Henry offered up some light at the end of our COVID tunnel this afternoon, with the Provincial Health Officer noting that with the increase in vaccinations to take place,  plans are now in motion towards lessening some of our current restrictions over the course of the next few weeks and months.

As for the data review, the numbers of confirmed positive cases of COVID remain in the 400-500's with today's relay of a weekend of data collection making for just over 1400 cases over three days.

“Today, we are reporting on three periods: March 5 to 6, we had 545 new cases, March 6 to 7, we had 532 new cases and in the last 24 hours, we had a further 385 new cases. 

This results in a total of 1,462 new cases, including 19 epi-linked cases, for a total of 84,569 cases in British Columbia. 

There are 4,854 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, with 8,723 people under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases. A further 78,237 people who tested positive have recovered. 

Of the active cases, 240 individuals are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 66 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation.

There have been 11 new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 1,391 deaths in British Columbia. We offer our condolences to everyone who has lost loved ones to COVID-19."

Across the province, the Health Authorities provided the following notes on positive cases over the weekend:  407 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 802 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 72 in the Island Health region, 79 in the Interior Health region, 

From Saturday to today, there were 102 positive cases in the Northern Health region, which brings our year to date totals to 4,901 since the first cases of January 2020.

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

As they keep a watchful eye on variant cases, the health officials observed that there have been 144 new confirmed COVID-19 cases that are variants of concern in our province, for a total of 394 cases. Of the total cases, 87 are active and the remaining people have recovered. This includes 363 cases of the B.1.1.7 (U.K.) variant and 31 cases of the B.1.351 (South Africa) variant. 

As the province moves forward with the vaccination program the numbers to date indicate that, 333,327 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in B.C., 86,925 of which are second doses. 

The launch today of the Phase Two vaccination program for Seniors over 90 years of age and Indigenous residents over 65 years old, appeared to get off to somewhat of chaotic start, with the appointment lines overwhelmed by over 1.7 million calls, significantly more than the target group that the appointments are being created for.

It was a response that the Doctor made note of, just before she highlighted how as the immunization period moves forward, British Columbians may soon see some of the current restrictions begin to loosen.

“We have seen extremely high call volumes, and the teams are working to respond as quickly as possible. We ask everyone who is outside of this age group to please wait to call until your registration window begins.

Our goal throughout the COVID-19 pandemic has always been to have as much as is safe open, while also protecting those who are at highest risk. As part of this, we regularly review the public health orders we have in place to determine what restrictions may be safely eased. 

With our immunization program ramping up and our days soon getting warmer once again, we can start to look at a modified return of some of the activities that have been on pause. 

We know that a thoughtful, careful approach is required, which means we need to think of resuming activities as slowly turning a dial, instead of flicking a switch. 

We know outside is better than inside, bigger spaces are better than smaller and our layers of protection will still be needed. These principles will guide our decisions in the weeks ahead. 

As part of these efforts, faith leaders have been regularly convening and we are working together to develop an approach to enable the gradual return of in-person religious services later this month. The focus is to both meet the specific needs of different faiths and ensure public health precautions are being maintained."

Doctor Henry speaking to the arrival of more vaccines in the province, also made note of the large number of cases in Prince Rupert in recent weeks and how the province is keeping watch on the ongoing situation on the North Coast.

"As you know we've talked about the importance of using these increased volumes (of vaccines) right now, to address where we are seeing significant outbreaks and community transmission.  

And one of those areas in Northern Health that will be addressed in coming days is the ongoing transmission and increasing cases in Prince Rupert"

More notes on Monday's provincial  report can be explored here.   

BC CDC Data for British Columbia for March 8 2021

BC CDC Data for Northern Health region for March 8 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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