A rise from the last few days of the number of new cases of COVID and the ongoing stresses on the health care system served for much of the narrative of today's live streamed briefing from Doctor Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix.
The two health care officials also noted how the travel restrictions to come tomorrow will serve to help get the province towards the May long weekend and hopes of a slow return to more normal times by Canada Day.
“Today, we are reporting 1,006 new cases, for a total of 122,757 cases in British Columbia.
There are 8,733 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, with 12,846 people under public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases. A further 112,235 people who tested positive have recovered.
Of the active cases, 502 individuals are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 161 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation.
There have been four new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 1,550 deaths in British Columbia. Our condolences are with the family, friends and caregivers of the people who have died as a result of COVID-19."
Across the province, today's breakdown of case reports by Health Authority was as follows: 241 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 600 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 37 in the Island Health region, 83 in the Interior Health region,
42 new cases were recorded in the Northern Health region, the total number of cases recorded in the Northern Health region is now 6,937 since January of 2020.
There were also three new cases of people reported with COVID in BC, who reside outside of Canada.
The vaccination program has slowed somewhat this week as the supply to British Columbia faces some slowdowns, to date the province has seen 1,500,430 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in B.C., 88,475 of which are second doses.
Today also saw the
Federal government put a hold on transit to and from India and Pakistan as those areas see significant spikes of COVID infection rates, the decision was one noted by Doctor Henry and Minister Dix, who both also spoke to the upcoming British Columbia travel restrictions as well as the current pressures found on BC's health care system.
“We support the action the federal government announced today to suspend flights from India and Pakistan for 30 days.
The pressure on B.C.’s health-care system is increasing, and our health-care workers need our help.
As a result of the growing number of people with COVID-19 requiring care in hospital and the strain it is putting on our capacity, we have made the difficult decision to postpone scheduled non-urgent surgeries in nine Lower Mainland hospitals for the next two weeks.
This is a temporary measure to ensure we can continue to care for everyone who is seriously ill and needs urgent care – whether they have COVID-19 or another illness. This is not a decision made lightly. We recognize this will have an impact on those who have been waiting their turn, and we will work to reschedule these surgeries as soon as we can.
In addition to this short-term change in some hospitals, additional travel measures will come into effect with specific details to be provided tomorrow.
Staying in our local communities means we are not travelling to or from COVID-19 hot spots and inadvertently bringing the virus with us as an unwelcome guest.
We all have to do our part to protect those who are at higher risk, even if we are not high risk ourselves.
This means doing three things: when it is your turn to get your vaccine – go, always using your safety layers and staying within your local communities. This is how we will protect our loved ones, our community and ourselves.”
The full COVID statement for Thursday
can be reviewed here.
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| BC CDC data for British Columbia for April 21, 2021 |
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| BC CDC data for the Northern Health Region for April 21, 2021 |
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