More than 260 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed since Friday, but B.C. is still doing a good job of limiting the virus’ spread through contact tracing, says provincial health officer Bonnie Henry.
There have been 269 new cases confirmed since Friday – 109 between Friday and Saturday, 81 between Saturday and Sunday and 79 since Sunday.
There has been only one new death since then, however.
“Despite the recent outbreaks and clusters that we have seen in the past week, and the rising case numbers, we still have low undetected transmission in our province,” Henry said Monday. “We are able to find and connect most people who have this disease.”
B.C. has lately ramped up testing to 4,000 to 5,000 tests per day. Henry said the test positive results remain "relatively low." She would be worried if the test positive numbers started climbing.
"Right now we are staying within the range of where we need to be," Henry said.
Henry suggested that everyone has to learn to live with the reality of the virus and not expect it to suddenly disappear.
"There are many more months of this to come," she said.
While Henry said that there has been a recent increase in infections among people in their 50s and 60s, the vast majority of the new cases are in younger people, and many of the sources of transmission are larger gatherings and private parties.
Last week, B.C. introduced new fines for individuals who hold large parties, and some hosts have already received $2,000 fines for hosting parties that breach the rules around physical distancing and limiting the number of people in a confined space.
"I think that it's the right thing to do and I think it's being used in the right way -- very judiciously," Henry said. "We want to do it in a progressive way for those who really are breaking the rules intentionally."
Here are today’s COVID-19 numbers for Monday August 24, with numbers from August 21, the last reporting period, in brackets:
- New cases: 269 (90)
- Total: 5,184 (4,915)
- Recovered: 4,068 (3,889)
- Active cases: 913 (824)
- Hospitalized: 18 (13)
- Intensive care: 5 (5)
- Deaths: 203 (202)
Confirmed cases by region:
- Vancouver Coastal Health: 1,651
- Fraser Health: 2,739
- Island Health: 166
- Interior Health: 425
- Northern Health:127
There has been one additional outbreak in a long-term care centre – MSA Manor. Henry said a number of recent outbreaks in long-term care facilities is limited to a single case.
Here are the long-term care and assisted living facilities with active outbreaks:
- Arbutus Care Centre
- Holy Family Hospital
- Czorny Alzheimer Centre
- Dania Home
- Derby Manor
- George Derby Centre
- New Vista Care Home
- MSA Manor
- Maple Ridge Seniors Village assisted living facility
