BC health officials announce 761 new cases of COVID-19

BC health officials said on Thursday that 761 new coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the province, bringing the provincially recorded total to 56,015.

In a live briefing, BC Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry explained that the province would be making changes in how it reports daily COVID-19 case data. Labs across the province have recently been unified, meaning that COVID-19 test results will be immediately fed to the BC Centre for Disease Control.

The province will now count each case based on the date the patient tested positive, not the date it was reported to the local health authority. Additionally, BC will begin tracking new COVID-19 cases from midnight to midnight, making each calendar day a new reporting period.

By specific health region, today’s case count equates to 94 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 484 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 23 in the Island Health region, 96 in the Interior Health region, 64 in the Northern Health region, and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

• See also:
  • Over two dozen cases added to Big White COVID-19 cluster
  • Canada ends flight ban from the United Kingdom
  • COVID-19 outbreak declared at VGH hospitalist unit

There are 6,349 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. There are 372 individuals currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 76 of whom are in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 217 in the Fraser Health region, eight in the Island Health Region, 33 in the Interior Health Region, and 38 in the Northern Health region.

Of those in the hospital, 74 are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.

Currently, 8,849 people are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases. There have been eight new COVID-19-related deaths, for a total of 970 deaths in British Columbia. Five of those deaths occurred in the Fraser Health Region, one in the Interior Health region, and two in the Vancouver Health region.

A total of 47,374 people who tested positive for COVID-19 have now recovered.