Yesterday's record of 203 new cases a day of COVID, did not have much time in the spotlight, eclipsed today by the announcement from the province's top public health official that Thursday's number was 274 new cases, of that number 208 are centred in the larges population area of Fraser Health.
Doctor Bonnie Henry delivered the totals and remarks on the latest spike in cases, as well as the ongoing work on COVID as part of a livestream review today,
“Today, we are reporting 274 new cases, including one epi-linked case, for a total of 12,331 cases in British Columbia.
There are 1,920 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, 4,425 people who are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases, and 10,114 people who tested positive have recovered.
Currently, 71 individuals are hospitalized with COVID-19, 24 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation."
There were not reports of recent deaths to relay as part of today's update.
Across the province, the Regional Health Authorities have outlined their to date cases since the start of the pandemic:
4,260 cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 6,725 in the Fraser Health region, 249 in the Island Health region, 644 in the Interior Health region, 365 in the Northern Health region an increase of four from Wednesday.
There are 88 cases of Covid reported in people who reside outside of Canada.
The Doctor continued to express optimism that the return to School has been managed well with no amplification of COVID in the communities, that despite the recent notes out of the Kelowna area, where the first outbreak event was recorded this week.
Noting that the recent outbreak is concerning, she observed how there have still been strong results when it comes to reports of containing the transmission in the schools.
As it was in the statement of Wednesday, the lack of caution towards Social gatherings appears to be the root cause to the sudden surge of new cases recorded in the last weeks, with Dr. Henry addressing the issue today, observing towards the links from social gatherings that have spilled over into the health care and work place dynamic.
“Social gatherings are where we are seeing significant transmission of COVID-19 in our province. Many of the new cases are linked to weddings, funerals and other important life occasions, and the impact is far reaching.
The new cases stemming from social gatherings are now spilling over and causing clusters and outbreaks in long-term care facilities, workplaces and schools right across our province.
Let’s remember that when we come together with family and friends, we bring our risks with us and, in turn, they take those risks back home with them.
This means that right now, every gathering, event or occasion needs to be small. We need to stick with our immediate household and safe six only.
Now is the time to slow down, stay small and plan the party for next year; to show we care by keeping our friends and family off the invite list this fall and winter."
She also issued a warning that if the continued trends continue that additional measures may be required to ensure that the Social Gathering issues don't contribute to larger troubles across the province.
"However, as much as I am hesitant to do so, and we've seen this before. If there is a major source of transmission, ,additional measures can and will be put in place if they are needed.
We will use all the tools that are available, whether that is conditions tied to wedding licences, restrictions on numbers in indoor gatherings, or other measures that we know will be effective in trying to break these large transmission events.
The reality is that right now in BC, everywhere in BC, Weddings, Funerals and other life occasions need to be small. As small as possible, every gathering needs to be our own household only and at maximum our safe six"
You can review the COVID-19 report for Thursday 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
Ottawa Observations
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