Welcome decline in case counts marks 58 new cases, 925 active cases of COVID in BC

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After Yesterday's somewhat startling three day review of spiking case reports, Tuesday's COVID report provided for a welcome shift downwards for the day. 

Today's review was delivered by way of a statement from the Public Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix, who made note of 58 new cases, including one epi-linked case since Monday, making for a total of 5,242 cases in British Columbia. 

There are 925 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, 2,675 people who are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases, and 4,114 people who tested positive have recovered.  

Currently, 22 individuals are hospitalized with COVID-19, seven of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation. 

Across the province, the individual Health Authorities have reported the following total cases to date:

1,683 cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 2,762 in the Fraser Health region, 168 in the Island Health region, 425 in the Interior Health region, 128 in the Northern Health region, which is an increase of one from Monday. 

76 cases of people who reside outside of Canada. 

Today's statement also observed that there have been no new COVID-19 related deaths since yesterday, for a total of 203 deaths in British Columbia. 

The statement from Doctor  Henry and Minister Dix also made note of the recent high numbers in the province, as well as to direct attention to a report from earlier today that provided background on the urgency towards the illicit drug situation in the province and the impact it is having on families.

“We know that COVID-19 is going to be with us for many months to come. As a result, unlike other viruses that have a vaccine, our focus is to keep new cases low and slow, and quickly contain new outbreaks as they occur. 

Our recent daily cases are higher than many of us are comfortable with, so let’s continue to do our part every moment of every day and keep COVID-19 where it needs to be. 

While we would all like to get to zero, we need to rather focus on prevention, detection and rapid response. 

Living with COVID-19 in our communities also means being unrelenting in our commitment to support and care for each other; to reach out to our vulnerable neighbours, friends and family members. 

Many people have lost fathers and mothers, sons and daughters directly to the illness. For others, as evidenced by the latest BC Coroner’s Service report on illicit drug deaths, an existing crisis has worsened as a result of the pandemic. Our thoughts and condolences also go out to the families and communities of the 175 people we lost to the toxic street drug supply in July. 

We know where the risks are and who is most vulnerable, which means we can put the right precautions in place based on the location, risk of transmission and potential severity of illness."

That report on the impact of the toxic street supply in BC can be examined here.

You can review the full COVID report for Tuesday 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, the string of statements that came quickly at the end of the week 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

Ottawa Observations

Victoria Viewpoints