B.C. continues to rack up new cases of COVID-19 at a pace far below that of other jurisdictions, with 12 new cases in the past 24 hours, including one that is a presumed, or an epidemiologically linked case where the person has all the symptoms but has not been tested.
There were no new deaths and there remain 16 people in hospital, with four of those in intensive care units.
That makes 2,990 people who have tested positive for the virus that has caused a global pandemic since COVID-19 first appeared in B.C. in late January.
Of those, 183 people have died, 2,645 people have recovered and 162 people are still battling the disease. Most infected patients are self-isolating at home.
The breakdown of all COVID-19 infections by health region is:
• 1,013 in Vancouver Coastal Health;
• 1,576 in Fraser Health;
• 133 in Island Health;
• 203 in Interior Health; and
• 65 in Northern Health.
"There have been no new health-care facility outbreaks and the outbreak at Tabor Home has now been declared over," B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix and provincial health officer Bonnie Henry said in a joint statement on July 7.
Two seniors' long-term care facilities have outbreaks: Holy Family Hospital long-term care facility and Maple Hill long-term care facility. There also remains an outbreak at Mission Memorial Hospital, which spawned the outbreaks at Tabor and at Maple Hill, when infected patients were transferred to those homes from the hospital.
"While there are no active community outbreaks in B.C., new cases and community exposure events continue to occur in the community," Dix and Henry said.
"There has been a new community exposure event at Hotel Belmont bar and nightclub in the Vancouver Coastal Health region. Public health teams have issued an alert for anyone who may have been at the premises on June 27 and June 29."
B.C. is estimated to have a population of about 5,190,000 people so it has so far had about one case of COVID-19 for every 1,735 residents, or 0.576 people per 1,000 residents. That compares with Washington State's estimated population of 7,615,000 people and 36,970 cases, for about one case of COVID-19 for every 206 people, or 4.85 people per 1,000 residents.
B.C.'s death rate, however, at more than 6.1%, is slightly higher than other jurisdictions.
Washington State, with 1,384 deaths, has a 3.7% death rate for COVID-19 patients.
Johns Hopkins University's Centre for Systems Science and Engineering has recorded 11,712,663 COVID-19 cases and 540,582 deaths globally, for a death rate of slightly more than 4.6%.
