BC health officials announce 549 new coronavirus cases since Friday

British Columbia health officials have announced 549 new test-positive coronavirus cases since Friday, bringing the total number of recorded cases in the province to 10,734.

During a press conference on Tuesday, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said there were 170 cases reported from Friday to Saturday, 159 from Saturday to Sunday, 119 from Sunday to Monday, and 101 from Monday to Tuesday.

Broken down by health region, this equates to 3,892 cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 5,595 in the Fraser Health region, 235 in the Island Health region, 582 in the Interior Health region, 331 in the Northern Health region and 89 cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

Noting the high number of overall new cases, Henry said it “is in part a result of a recent testing backlog, which was cleared with extra lab processing over the weekend.”

And “while this has meant an increase in the overall number of confirmed positive cases, the active cases and percentage positive remain stable.”

There were also five deaths that took place over the weekend, bringing the total number of fatalities in BC to 250.

There are 1,476 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and 3,618 people are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases.

Currently, 77 individuals are hospitalized with COVID-19, 24 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation.

There have been four new health-care facility outbreaks: PICS assisted-living facility, Chartwell Carrington House assisted- and independent-living facility, Weinberg Residence long-term care facility and Yaletown House long-term care facility.

In total, 17 long-term care or assisted-living facilities and three acute-care facilities have active outbreaks.

The province said that 8,974 individuals who tested positive have now recovered.