B.C. health officials reported 50 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, including one new case in Island Health.
One more COVID-19 death in B.C. was also reported on Friday. The death was in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, bringing the province’s death toll to 195.
Adrian Dix, Minister of Health, and Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.’s provincial health officer, released Friday’s numbers in a written statement. Of the 50 new cases, five cases are epidemiologically-linked, meaning people who were never tested but were presumed to have COVID-19 because they developed symptoms and were close contacts of a laboratory-confirmed case.
Friday’s case count is the highest daily increase since April 27.
There are 278 active cases of COVID-19 in the province and 3,168 people who tested positive have recovered. Of the total COVID-19 cases, five people are in hospital (no change from July 30), two of whom are in intensive care.
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 144 cases of COVID-19 in Island Health, 1,088 cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 1,889 in the Fraser Health region, 369 in the Interior Health region, 88 in the Northern Health region and 63 cases among people who reside outside of Canada (temporary foreign workers and visitor)
There has been one new health-care facility outbreak at Dania Home in the Fraser Health region. There are now two long-term care facilities and one acute-care facility with active outbreaks.
The assisted living, long-term care homes and seniors’ rental buildings with ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks are.
- Vancouver Coastal Health:
- Holy Family Hospital long-term care facility in Vancouver
- Fraser Health:
- Dania Home long-term care facility in Burnaby
There are no new community outbreaks. Henry and Dix said health teams continue to support the active outbreaks on Haida Gwaii and at Fraser Valley Packers Inc. in Abbotsford.
On Thursday, the B.C. government announced that travel to Haida Gwaii would be restricted due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.
Dix and Henry said there do continue to be community exposure events across the province. A full listing of community exposure events related to flights and others within each health authority is available through the BC Centre for Disease Control, as well as on health authority websites.
“This weekend, let’s play safe and stay safe while COVID-19 remains in our communities,” Henry and Dix said in their statement.
“We can make this B.C. Day holiday weekend one where we find the right balance: having those important social connections with our friends and family, while taking precautions to protect ourselves and those around us. Let’s socialize safely by keeping our groups small, using the layers of protection and giving everyone enough space to stay safe, whether at a backyard barbecue, on a friend’s boat or enjoying a nearby park.”
Dix and Henry invited British Columbians to look at the new “Good Times Guide” available online at the following website: https://goodtimes.gov.bc.ca/
“It is our playbook for how to have fun and to keep each other safe and healthy,” Dix and Henry said.
“We all want to keep COVID-19 low and slow, and your actions make the difference. Throughout B.C., people are doing what it takes to keep our firewall strong, and we thank you for what you are doing today, tomorrow and every day this summer.”
To see B.C.’s COVID-19 numbers by day and health authority, along with testing numbers, visit the B.C. COVID-19 dashboard.
According to researchers with John Hopkins University and Medicine, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide is more than 17.4 million, with more than 675,000 deaths.
Alexa Huffman
