British Columbia’s top doctor sounded the alarm over a shortage of vaccines, new variants, and a potential surge in cases on Monday, as 1,344 new cases of COVID-19 and 26 deaths were reported over the past three days.
The number of confirmed cases in B.C. climbs to 64,828 while the province’s death toll now stands at 1,154.
From Friday to Saturday there were 527 cases, from Saturday to Sunday there were 471 cases, and from Sunday to Monday, there were 346 cases identified.
Of the new cases, 314 were recorded in Vancouver Coastal Health, 618 were in Fraser Health, 73 in Island Health, 234 in Interior Health, and 104 in Northern Health. One case was in a person who normally resides outside of Canada.
There are currently 4,392 active cases in the province, 328 people in hospital — of whom are 68 in intensive care — and more than 6,000 people under active public health monitoring due to possible exposure to an identified case.
Although one new COVID-19 outbreak was declared at a healthcare facility – Nanaimo Regional General Hospital – outbreaks at 11 other healthcare facilities have now been declared over.
A total of 57,801 people in B.C. have recovered from COVID-19.
Vaccine shortage forces B.C. to modify immunization plans
Although Sunday’s figure of less than 350 new cases identified is the lowest one-day total since Boxing Day, it was not all good news.
During Monday’s update, Dr. Bonnie Henry said the province learned over the weekend that they will not be receiving any vaccine this week and not nearly as much vaccine as originally expected in the coming weeks.
“We are going to have very little vaccine,” said Henry. “As we knew, we are receiving no Pfizer vaccine and it is also a week where we do not receive any new vaccine from Moderna.”
Even more concerning, perhaps, the amount of vaccine expected to arrive in B.C. in the following weeks has also been reduced significantly.
“The amounts that we were expecting to receive in the first week of February, were dramatically reduced and we right now do not know how much, if any, vaccine we will be receiving the following two weeks in February,” said Henry, explaining that officials only learned of the news over the weekend.
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Henry said the move is being done to ensure whatever doses the province has can be given out as first doses to individuals who need it.
“This means we can use what little supply we have right now to finish our long-term care home immunization, to address the outbreaks that are happening at our hospitals and communities,” she said.
“This is about putting out fires before they get out of control,” she added.
U.K. and South African variants are in B.C.
Dr. Henry also revealled on Monday that three cases of the South Africa variant have been identified in British Columbia — two in Vancouver Coastal and one in Fraser Health.
“All three of these cases were community-acquired, so they were not linked to travel, which of course is something we are concerned about,” said Henry. “We are now investigating.”
Henry said the fact that all three cases are not linked to travel is alarming.
“These are of course concerning, because we know if we start to see rapid transmission, we could be in a position where we are having way more transmission in our communities than what we have right now,” she said.
RELATED: Province’s first case of new COVID-19 variant is in Island Health region
Additionally, there have been five cases of the U.K. variant now identified in British Columbia, according to Henry. The first case of the variant was identified in Island Health last late year.
However, unlike the South Africa variant, all of those cases are related to travel or related to close contact with someone who travelled.
“We have had no ongoing transmission from any of the five identified [U.K. variant] cases,” said Henry.
Roughly 11,000 samples have undergone whole-genome sequencing, according to Henry, who said public health officials continue to monitor areas where there is ongoing and rapid transmission, particularly among younger people.
“So far we have not seen widespread transmission, but it remains a concern and it is something we will be watching carefully,” said Henry.
Henry warns B.C. is on the ‘brink’ of widespread infections
Henry ended off her update by pleading with British Columbians to stay home change their habits in order to reduce transmissions of the virus.
“My ask of you is to take a step back and remember that COVID-19 is still that unwelcome guest in our homes, in our workplaces, in our communities,” Henry pleaded. “I am asking you now, as much as possible, more than you’ve ever done before, to stay home, stop the social interactions, to focus on the key things that are keeping us together.”
With an average of about 500 new cases per day, Henry said the province has hit a plateau, but that it remains far too high and cases could skyrocket at any time.
“This is too many,” she said. “This leaves us at a precipice, at a brink, where we can see rapid take off, particularly if we start to see any of these variants start to spread in our community.”
Although British Columbia is managing to “get a handle” on infections at long-term care facilities, Henry said everyone in the province remains at risk.
“The virus continues to circulate in our communities and our immunization is working in these high-risk settings, but we are still at risk. We are at the threshold of where we were in late October, November when cases started rapidly escalating.”
B.C’s top doctor said there are only two choices, a rise in cases or a decline in cases, but that it all depends on how people behave.
“We need and know how to stop this,” said Henry. “We can either go up and . . . when we have lots of people infected, even young people become severely ill, end up in hospital, we will have more of our family, our community who are hospitalized, who need ICU care, and who will die from this virus.”
Henry also hinted that existing COVID-19 restrictions in B.C. could possibly change depending on what happens over the coming weeks.
“This is the most challenging time for us. It is not the time to falter despite us being tired and frustrated and wanting it to be over. We need to hang in there,” she said.
“We are so close but we need to do this now.”
Island Health
Once again, Island Health’s figures somewhat differ from the figures released by the provincial government on Monday.
According to the latest data provided by Island Health, there were 77 new cases of COVID-19 reported over the weekend.
There are currently 211 active cases on Vancouver Island – an increase of 11 since the province’s last update on Jan. 22.
Of the active cases, 25 (+4) are on southern Vancouver Island, 168 (+16) on central Vancouver Island and 18 (-3) on northern Vancouver Island.
There was also one death reported in Island Health over the past three days, according to the BCCDC’s website.
Over the course of the pandemic, the Island Health region has reported 1,462 cases.
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.
National landscape
According to the latest data from Health Canada, have been 753,011 cases reported nationwide, including 14,761 cases on First Nations reserves.
There are currently 62,447 active cases across Canada and British Columbia has among the lowest rates of testing per million of anywhere in the nation.
Only New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories and Nunavut have tested for COVID-19 at a lower rate than B.C.
There have been 19,238 deaths recorded in Canada.
Source: Health Canada
Globally, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University and Medicine, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide stands at 99,660,483 while the number of deaths is at 2.13 million.
The countries with the most recorded cases, according to the World Health Organization, are the the United States, India, Brazil, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Turkey and Germany.
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.
Provincial mental health and anxiety support can be found at www.bouncebackbc.ca
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.
Nicholas Pescod
Tess van Straaten
