Active COVID-19 cases continue to fall on Vancouver Island as B.C. records 20 new deaths

Nicholas Pescod/CHEK News
There are currently 210 active cases on Vancouver Island, according to data available on the BCCDC’s dashboard.

British Columbia health officials have reported 1,759 new COVID-19 cases and 20 deaths since their last update on May 7.

The number of confirmed cases in B.C. climbs to 136,100 while the death toll now stands at 1,622.

From Friday to Saturday there were 605 new cases identified, from Saturday to Sunday there were 596 new cases, and from Sunday to Monday (May 10) there were 558 new cases.

Of the new cases, 325 were recorded in Vancouver Coastal Health, 1,201 were in Fraser Health, 50 were in Island Health, 131 were in Interior Health, and 52 were in Northern Health.

There are currently 6,140 active cases in the province, 415 people in hospital — 150 of whom are in intensive care.

A total of 128,139 people in B.C. have recovered from COVID-19 while more than 2.59 million doses of vaccine have been administered province-wide.

Of the 20 new deaths, the majority were people over the age of 70, including one who was over 90 and living at a long-term care home, Dr. Bonnie Henry, the province’s provincial health officer, said during Monday’s update.

“Having an age group doesn’t represent each individual who passed away this weekend from this virus, it just helps recognize that nobody is immune and that this virus has a tremendous negative impact on our seniors and elders,” she said.

Island Health

There are currently 210 active cases on Vancouver Island, according to data available on the BCCDC’s dashboard.

Eighteen people are currently hospitalized due to the coronavirus, six of whom are in critical care.

Sadly, one of the deaths reported over the weekend occurred in Island Health.

Since the pandemic began, there have been 4,848 cases reported, 39 deaths, and 237 total hospitalizations on Vancouver Island.

More than 317,500 people have received at least one dose of vaccine on Vancouver Island.

Meanwhile, Island Health reported 169 active cases on Vancouver Island in its latest dashboard update.

Of those active cases, 85 are in the South Island, 59 are in Central Island, and 25 are in the North Island.

It’s worth noting that Island Health’s data often lags behind the BCCDC’s data due to a “difference in timing of reporting across laboratory and public health data sources.”

However, active cases on Vancouver Island, regardless of whether one goes by the BCCDC’s data or Island Health’s data, are at the lowest in more than six weeks.

More data becoming available to the public, officials claim

During Monday’s live update, Dr. Henry announced that the BCCDC is planning on releasing more data to the public and that work has begun on an interactive map that would provide more data by neighbourhood. She also said that by Wednesday, the public will be able to look at more granular detail “mostly” by community health service area.

“I say mostly because there are some smaller population centres in the province, mostly rural ones, where we can only present health area because the community and parts of the community can be identifiable,” Henry said.

The remarks come after a pair of leaked reports from the BC Centre for Disease Control, which were published by The Vancouver Sun last week, showed just how much information the provincial government has been holding back when it comes to COVID-19 case counts and vaccinations at the neighbourhood level.

Henry stressed again on Monday that the province shares lots of COVIDD data in many ways, citing the live briefings, statements and weekly BCCDC reports, as evidence but said there are limitations.

“While we work to release as much data as possible, we do have very rigid legal and ethical requirements to ensure an individual’s personal health information is not compromised,” she said.

However, Henry also acknowledged that the province doesn’t actively collect — or publicly admit to collecting — or release.

“There are many different types of data or information that we may not have in our ongoing systematic surveillance,” she said. “These include like race-based data, disaggregated data based on race, workplace data, and on school data. When we put that information together with what we can provide, we present those at our monthly modelling meetings.”

ALSO READ: Horgan claims B.C. is transparent as anywhere in North America with its COVID-19 data, but is he right?

Active COVID-19 cases continue to fall on Vancouver Island as B.C. records 20 new deaths

Active COVID-19 cases continue to fall on Vancouver Island as B.C. records 20 new deaths

Duration 32s

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Nicholas PescodNicholas Pescod
April LawrenceApril Lawrence

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