British Columbia has reported 711 new cases of COVID-19 across the province in the last 24 hours.
Of the 711 new cases, 10 are linked to the Island Health region.
There are currently 9,050 active cases in British Columbia, while 10,957 residents remain under active public health monitoring.
After surpassing the 9,000 mark yesterday for active cases, the number decreased by 53 in today’s announcement.
Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix note that 338 are in hospital currently – an increase of 13 – with 76 people in critical care as a result of the virus (decreasing by four from Thursday).
On Friday, there were 11 additional deaths related to the virus, meaning the provincial total over the course of the pandemic has now reached 492.
B.C. has now reported 134 deaths from the virus over the past nine days, meaning that 27 per cent of the total number of deaths in B.C. has occurred in that span.
Since Thursday’s numbers, there have been 143 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 427 in the Fraser Health region, 10 in the Island Health region, 81 in the Interior Health region, 50 in the Northern Health region and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.
As of Friday, the total number of cases in British Columbia over the course of the pandemic has been 36,132.
Dr. Henry noted that there have two new health-care facility outbreaks at Peace Arch Hospital Foundation Lodge and at Richmond Hospital, while the outbreak at Youville Residence has been declared over.
There are now 56 active outbreaks in long-term care and assisted living and nine in acute care facilities.
“We continue to face a significant surge in community transmission and new cases of COVID-19, which means following the provincial health officer’s (PHO) orders and using all our layers of protection is necessary for every person in our province right now,” reads a joint statement from Dr. Henry and Dix, sent out Friday.
Dr. Henry and Minister Dix are encouraging British Columbians to still be festive with the holiday season in full swing, but only with immediate household members at this time.
Island Health
On Friday, Island Health said there were 183 active cases within its authority: 59 on southern Vancouver Island, 99 on central Vancouver Island and 25 on northern Vancouver Island.
Southern Vancouver Island includes the Greater Victoria region, Southern Gulf Islands and the Port Renfrew area.
Central Vancouver Island includes the Cowichan Valley, Duncan, Nanaimo, Parksville, Port Alberni and Tofino areas.
Northern Vancouver Island goes from the Comox Valley to Port Hardy but also includes surrounding areas like Alert Bay and Sointula.
Over the course of the pandemic, the Island Health region has reported 679 cases.
Island Health’s COVID-19 numbers on Dec. 4, 2020.
National COVID-19 landscape
Earlier today, the federal government revealed that Canada had surpassed the 400,000 case mark since the start of the pandemic.
It took only 18 days for Canada to rack up the latest 100,000 cases, marking the shortest growth period since the pandemic was first declared in March.
As of Thursday, 314,608 Canadians have recovered from COVID-19, and 12,407 have died, according to the Government of Canada website.
Other COVID-19 information
If there is a confirmed COVID-19 case in a school, public health contacts affected school community members directly. Regional health authorities also post-school notifications on their websites, providing the date and type of notification (outbreak, cluster or exposure) for impacted schools.
The Island Health school site can be found here.
Island Health’s COVID-19 data breaks down North, Central and South Island case counts and lists the number of days since any new lab-diagnosed cases. You can find the data here along with any public exposures.
According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University and Medicine, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide is more than 65.7 million. More than 1.5 million deaths have been recorded.
More to come.
Graham Cox
