Decline for COVID Count for Tuesday, but current situation continues to put stresses on provincial health system

Tuesday's COVID report saw a slight decline from recent case counts with 849 cases of COVID-19 reported on the day  

A positive step, but one which serves to caution us that the hard work remains in bringing the curve of infection down across the province.

“Today, we are reporting 849 new cases, for a total of 120,889 cases in British Columbia. 

There are 9,145 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, with 13,679 people under public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases. 

A further 109,973 people who tested positive have recovered. 

Of the active cases, 456 individuals are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 148 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation. 

There has been one new COVID-19 related death, for a total of 1,539 deaths in British Columbia. Our condolences are with the family, friends, caregivers and communities of all the people who have passed away due to COVID-19."

Across the province, the Five Health Authority's relayed the following case reviews for Tuesday: 247 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 474 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 29 in the Island Health region, 67 in the Interior Health region, 

There were 31 cases reported across the Northern Health region, brining the total case count since January of 2020 to 6,869 positive cases of COVID-19 for the Northern BC region. 

There was one new case COVID reported for a person in British Columbia who resides outside of Canada.  

Keeping a watchful eye on the variant totals, Dr. Henry and Minister Dix noted that  there are currently 6,179 cases of COVID-19 that are confirmed variants of concern in our province. Of the total cases, 163 are active and the remaining people have recovered. This includes 4,041 cases of the B.1.1.7 (U.K.) variant, 76 cases of the B.1.351 (South Africa) variant and 2,062 cases of the P.1 (Brazil) variant. 

Tuesday's review of the vaccination program in BC noted that “In B.C., 1,414,644 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca-SII COVID-19 vaccines have been administered, 88,263 of which are second doses. 

The statement for the day returned to some themes from Monday's announcement of stronger measures ahead, noting of the stresses that COVID is making for in health care in the province.

“At the current rates of transmission, our health-care workers and hospitals are getting pushed to the limits to support the many people with COVID-19 who require care. 

We are taking steps to reduce this pressure and we need everyone in B.C. to do the same. Later this week, new orders will be in place to restrict vacation and recreational travel outside of your home health authority. 

We also need everyone else to do their part – staying local, in our communities and health regions, and waiting until it is safe to travel once again. 

We will get through this pandemic. As we have done before, we will do this by working together. Let’s do all we can now so we can enjoy a different summer.”

The full COVID statement for Tuesday can be reviewed here. 

BC CDC data for British Columbia for April 20, 2021

BC CDC data for Northern Health Region for April 20, 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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