Highest new COVID-19 case count of the year takes British Columbia into a new weekend

If British Columbians are looking to see current COVID measures reduced, we may be going about it all wrong, with Friday delivering the largest one day total of the year of new COVID-19 cases in the province.

With a total of 737 new cases for the day, British Columbia is clearly not having much success in bending the curve; something which may have to be taken into account I the weeks ahead when it comes to relaxing the list of Public Health Orders in place at the moment.

Today's notes came by way of an Information statement from Doctor Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix.

“Today, we are reporting 737 new cases, for a total of 90,786 cases in British Columbia. 

There are 5,207 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, with 9,412 people under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases. A further 84,078 people who tested positive have recovered. 

Of the active cases, 292 individuals are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 85 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation. 

There have been two new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 1,421 deaths in British Columbia."

Across the province, the relay of information from the regional health authority's was as follows: 163 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 426 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 32 in the Island Health region, 33 in the Interior Health region, 

There were 82 new cases of COVID-19 reported in the Northern Health region today, which brings the total of cases to date since January of 2020 to 5,443.

There was also one new case of COVID reported in the province from a person who resides outside of Canada. 

When it comes to the variants, there have been 68 new confirmed COVID-19 cases that are variants of concern in our province, for a total of 1,200 cases. Of the total cases, 149 are active and the remaining people have recovered. This includes 1,094 cases of the B.1.1.7 (U.K.) variant, 41 cases of the B.1.351 (South Africa) variant and 65 cases of the P.1 (Brazil) variant. 

As the case count goes higher, the vaccination program has also started to show some growth.

 “To date, 490,022 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca-SII COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in B.C., 87,139 of which are second doses."

When it comes to the community wide clinic for Prince Rupert/Port Edward residents, Northern Health noted that the current campaign will come to an end with the completion of the Monday schedule at the Jim Ciccone Civic centre.

Doctor Henry also made note of the next phase of the provincial vaccination plan which will include front line workers and how even with a vaccination, following all of the current COVID guidance is still required. 

More notes on Friday's provincial  report can be reviewed here.   

BC CDC Data for BC For March 19 202

BC CDC Data for Northern Health Region For March 19 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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