British Columbia health officials have reported 518 new cases – including nine in Island Health – and 19 deaths from COVID-19.
The number of confirmed cases in B.C. climbs to 48,027 while the province’s death toll now stands at 796.
“Sadly, once again, we have far too many people who have died,” Dr. Bonnie Henry, the provincial health officer, said during an update on Wednesday (Dec. 23).
Of the new cases reported, 97 were recorded in Vancouver Coastal Health, 332 were in Fraser Health, nine in Island Health, 49 in Interior Health, and 31 in Northern Health.
There are currently 9,137 active cases in the province, 348 people in hospital — 80 of whom are in intensive care — and roughly 9,689 people under active public health monitoring due to possible exposure to an identified case.
B.C. currently has 55 active outbreaks in its healthcare system, affecting and 14,014 patients and staff.
A total of 36,952 people in B.C. have recovered from COVID-19 while 5,603 people have been vaccinated.
With the busy Boxing Day just a few days away, Henry urged people to shop local and in smaller numbers and warned retailers that WorkSafeBC will be monitoring shops and stores over the coming days for any violations.
“I encourage people to stay local, go and visit your local retailers and go in small numbers,” she said. “But I also remind retailers the need to ensure capacity limits meet the requirements of the orders. That one way paths are followed, that barriers and mask requirements are being followed.”
“Stay local, stay small, show you care by staying apart and connecting with people in safe ways,” she later added. “The fewer people we see now the safer we will all be.”
Island Health
The number of active cases on Vancouver Island ticked up slightly again today.
According to the latest data provided by Island Health, there are currently 66 active cases on Vancouver Island, an increase of one case since yesterday.
Of those active cases, there are 28 in southern Vancouver Island, 24 cases in the central Island, and 14 cases in the north Island.
The Island Health region has a total of 847 confirmed cases of COVID-19 — 281 in the south Island, 379 in central Island and 187 in north Island — since the pandemic began.
School infections are relatively low
During Wednesday’s update, Henry revealed new epidemiological modeling data, which showed that a total of 526 schools – including 21 schools on Vancouver Island – out of 1,942 schools province-wide have experienced COVID-19 exposures.
“What we have seen, is that even though we have exposure events that reflect transmission in our community, we have very little transmission in actually in schools,” said B.C.’s top doctor.
Of those 526 schools that experienced an exposure event, 290 were elementary schools.
“The vast majority of those, 290, almost 300 have been elementary schools and this includes students and adults,” Henry explained.
The data also showed that school-aged children — those between five to 18 — represent 12 per cent of all COVID-19 cases.
“It has been fairly consistent, about 10 to 12 per cent since the beginning of the pandemic,” said Henry.
There are more than 650,000 students in British Columbia and according to Henry, less than one per cent of all school-aged children have tested positive for COVID-19.
“If we look at the general population, about seven per cent, or seven in 100 tests are positive, but we look at the school-aged population that is much much less. So even though one per cent of school-age children have been tested … less than one per cent actually test positive for COVID-19,” she said.
“Of the over 120,000 school-aged children, about 600 children or staff in the school system were diagnosed with COVID-19 in Vancouver Coastal Health, less than 200 of those resulted in any exposure events in schools and they had transmission in about 10 per cent to about 1 or 2 people in the school setting.”
Furthermore, Henry said seven out of 10 schools in B.C. have not had anyone in their school test positive for COVID-19. She also said school-aged children who display symptoms end up not actually having COVID.
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Nicholas Pescod
