COVID-19 cases in BC could hit 2,000 per day if people don't decrease interactions: health officials

Daily COVID-19 case numbers in BC could hit the 2,000 mark in the very near future if people don’t decrease the level of their interactions.

That’s according to the latest epi-modelling in the province, which was shared by Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix on Thursday afternoon.

Currently, “the rate of infectious contacts is somewhere around 50 to 60%,” said Henry during a press conference.  “We need to get down to 40% or less.”

She noted this was accomplished in the province last March and this past November.

“We need to pay attention again,” she said. “COVID-19 is a virus transmitted by people to people.”

Government of BC

It’s important, Henry continued, “to keep in mind that of the people we are seeing every day – whether at work, running errands or outside – someone is likely to have COVID-19. The more people we see, the higher that likelihood will be.”

This is why “staying small and staying local is key right now,” she stressed. “Making the effort to have less contact with people outside our household will put us back on the path where we want and need to be.”

Henry announced 1,205 new test-positive COVID-19 cases on Thursday, bringing the total number of recorded cases in the province to 116,075.

She said that broken down by specific health region, this equates to 301 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 730 new cases in the Fraser Health region, 38 in the Island Health region, 69 in the Interior Health region, 66 in the Northern Health region, and one new case of a person who normally resides outside of Canada.

There are 10,052 active cases in the province, with 16,217 people under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases.

Of the active cases, 409 individuals are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 125 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation.

There have been three new COVID-19-related deaths, for a total of 1,524 deaths in British Columbia.

A total of 104,331 people who tested positive have recovered, and 1,235,863 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been delivered.