British Columbia has reported 737 new cases of COVID-19 across the province in the last 24 hours.
Of the 737 new cases, eight are linked to the Island Health region.
There are currently 9,589 active cases in British Columbia, while 12,008 residents remain under active public health monitoring.
Dr. Bonnie Henry says that 342 are in hospital currently – a decrease of four from Thursday – with 87 people in critical care as a result of the virus (increasing by four from Thursday).
On Friday, there were 11 additional deaths related to the virus, bringing the provincial death total over the course of the pandemic to 598. The 11 additional deaths announced today follows the deadliest day in British Columbia since the start of the pandemic. Health officials announced Thursday 28 additional deaths – one of those were linked to the outbreak at Saanich Peninsula Hospital in the Island Health region.
Since Thursday’s numbers, there have been 119 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 469 in the Fraser Health region, 8 in the Island Health region, 99 in the Interior Health region, 41 in the Northern Health region and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.
As of Thursday, the total number of cases in British Columbia over the course of the pandemic has been 40,797.
Dr. Henry noted that there have been three new health-care facility outbreaks at Agassiz Seniors Community, Hilton Villa Seniors Community and St. Michael’s Centre.
The outbreaks at Veterans Memorial Lodge in Greater Victoria, Amica White Rock and Burnaby Hospital have been declared over.
There are now 58 active outbreaks in long-term care and assisted living and seven in acute care facilities.
“COVID-19 continues to circulate in our communities and the risk to all of us remains high. This is why it is so important to follow the public health orders and to use our layers of protection until the vaccine is available for all of us,” reads a joint statement from Dr. Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix.
“This weekend, take a step back from the usual holiday rush. Take the time to get outside and enjoy a quieter weekend with those in your household. Show your loved ones you care by staying local and staying away right now.”
B.C. Health officials are expecting to have the first people immunized in the province by the end of next week after Pfizer’s vaccine was approved by Health Canada.
“We want to ensure we are moving into this stage of our COVID-19 response in the best position possible, which means working together to make sure we don’t fall back as we move forward with our immunization program.”
Island Health
At this time, Island Health has yet to release updated statistics on COVID-19 for Friday, Dec. 11.
On Thursday, the health authority had 102 active cases – 41 on southern Vancouver Island, 44 on central Vancouver Island and 17 on northern Vancouver Island.
Over the course of the pandemic, the Island Health region had reported 756 cases on Thursday as well.
Island Health COVID-19 numbers for Dec. 11
More 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 70 million. More than 1.59 million deaths have been recorded.
More to come.
Graham Cox
