525 new cases of COVID-19 in B.C., including 7 in Island Health

B.C. health officials reported 525 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, including seven new cases in Island Health.

Three more COVID-19 deaths were also reported on Tuesday, bringing B.C.’s COVID-19 death toll to 284.

Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.’s provincial health officer, and Adrian Dix, Minister of Health, issued Tuesday’s numbers in a joint statement.

In the last 24 hours, B.C. has recorded seven new cases of COVID-19 in the Island Health region, 159 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 325 in the Fraser Health region, 27 in the Interior Health region, seven in the Northern Health region and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

There are 5,133 active cases of COVID-19 in the province (242 more than Nov. 9). A total of 142 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 (nine more than Nov. 9), 46 of whom are in intensive care (three more than Nov. 9).

There are 9,781 people under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases (602 more than Nov. 9) and 13,704 people who tested positive have recovered.

B.C. has now had a total of 19,239 cases since the start of the pandemic.

And there are two new health-care facility outbreaks at Holyrood Manor and Burnaby Hospital. In total, 33 long-term care or assisted-living facilities and six acute-care facilities have active outbreaks. They are:

• Vancouver Coastal Health – nine facilities
  • Banfield Pavilion
  • Haro Park Centre (second occurrence)
  • Hamilton Village Care Centre
  • Lakeview Care Centre
  • Louis Brier Home & Hospital
  • Pinegrove Place
  • Royal Arch Masonic Home (second occurrence)
  • Three Links Care Centre
  • Yaletown House
• Fraser Health – 22 facilities
  • Agassiz Seniors Community
  • Amenida Seniors Community
  • Belvedere Care Centre
  • CareLife Fleetwood
  • Evergreen Baptist Care Society
  • Fellburn Care Centre
  • Fort Langley Seniors Community
  • Good Samaritan Delta View Care Centre
  • Harrison Pointe
  • Holyrood Manor
  • Laurel Place
  • Hawthorne Seniors Care Community – long-term care
  • Hawthorne Senior Care Community – assisted living
  • Mayfair Terrace Retirement Residence
  • Normanna (second occurrence)
  • Northcrest Care Centre
  • Rosemary Heights Seniors Village
  • St. Michael’s Centre
  • Suncreek Village
  • Tabor Home (second occurrence)
  • The Residence in Mission
  • White Rock Senior Village (second occurrence)
• Northern Health – one facility
  • Rotary Manor Dawson Creek
• Interior Health – one facility
  • Village at Mill Creek

“We need to break the chains of transmission and slow the surge of COVID-19 cases – especially in the regions and locations of highest spread,” Henry and Dix said in Tuesday’s statement.

“The regional health authority restrictions are a short-term pause on non-essential activities to ensure we can maintain capacity within our health-care system and continue important essential activities.

“We need to slow down and take a step back to allow us to safely move forward in the weeks ahead.

“A growing number of people in British Columbia are now self-isolating at home, away from their work, school, friends and family, which in turn is creating unnecessary financial and emotional strain for far too many.

“We can turn this trend around and the time to do that is now.

“Over the next two weeks, and especially tomorrow on Remembrance Day, let’s honour our veterans for all that they have done for our province and nation. Let’s recognize the sacrifices and hardship they faced and overcame by making our own small sacrifices right now.

“While the ceremonies may be remote, the poppies virtual and our legions closed this Remembrance Day, we can still show our appreciation, in a safe and respectful way, to the men and women who have proudly served our nation.

“Thank you to our veterans for your service and thank you to everyone in British Columbia for doing your part to protect our veterans, our Elders and communities.”

Island Health 

There are 41 active cases in Island Health: 20 on southern Vancouver Island, 12 on central Vancouver Island and nine on northern Vancouver Island.

Island Health has now had a total of 308 cases since the start of the pandemic. There are no COVID-19 hospitalizations in the health region as of Nov. 10 and 261 people have recovered.

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.

Island Health’s COVID-19 cases on Nov. 10, 2020. (Island Health)

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.

There is one school exposure and one cluster posted for Island Health as of Nov. 10. The COVID-19 cluster is at Dover Bay Secondary at 6135 McGirr Road in Nanaimo on Nov. 2, Nov. 5 and Nov. 6. This site was formally labelled as an exposure.

The exposure is at John Barsby Secondary at 550 Seventh St. in Nanaimo on Nov. 5 and Nov. 6.

An exposure is when a single person with lab-confirmed COVID-19 infection attended school during their infectious period.

A cluster is when two or more individuals with lab-confirmed COVID-19 infection who attended school during their infectious period. The cases may be linked to school-based transmission.

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.

To see B.C.’s COVID-19 numbers by day and health authority, along with testing numbers, positivity rates and recoveries, visit the B.C. COVID-19 dashboard.  The numbers are updated at 4:30 p.m. PT each weekday.

To see a list of all provincial public COVID-19 exposures in the province, including links to exposures listed on health authority websites, visit the B.C. Centre for Disease Control website ( BC CDC) here.

Island Health has one possible exposure listed: Tofino Brewing Co. at 691 Industrial Way in Tofino B.C. on Oct. 27 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Island Health provides updates on the locations and times of known possible exposures to COVID-19 to the public in our region when they are unable to reach or identify all individuals potentially exposed via contact tracing. A close contact exposure means face-to-face contact for an extended period of time with a person who is infectious.

The possible exposures listed are believed to be low risk but, out of an abundance of caution, Island Health asks that anyone who may have visited any of the locations listed on the specified dates and times to monitor themselves for COVID-19 symptoms.

And the BC CDC has set up a COVID-19 epidemiology dashboard, which compares B.C. to other jurisdictions nationally and globally. It will be available on Tuesdays and Fridays.

According to Johns Hopkins University and Medicine, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide is more than 51 million. More than 1.2 million deaths have been recorded.

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