Daily new COVID-19 cases in B.C. have hit a new daily high, B.C. authorities said.
Provincial health authorities announced this afternoon that the previous 24 hours saw a record daily high of 124 new cases of COVID in B.C., including one epi-linked case. The total number of cases in the province is now 5,496.
The previous one-day high was 109, recorded on Aug. 22. There has also been a few other previous instances where provincial health officer Bonnie Henry and health minister Adrian Dix announced new-case figures above 100, but those instances were data releases covering either a 48-hour or a 72-hour period over a weekend.
"There are 974 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, 2,796 people who are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases, and 4,310 people who tested positive have recovered,” the provincial statement from Dix and Henry said this afternoon.
"Currently, 23 individuals are hospitalized with COVID-19, seven of whom are in intensive care.
On the positive front, no new deaths were reported, keeping the provincial death toll at 204. There are also no new community or health-care facility outbreaks, and the outbreak previously announced at Haida Gwaii has now been declared over.
In response to the new numbers, Henry reiterated in her statement the need for people to remain vigilant in preventing the spread of the virus - and that may mean adapting to “new ways of living our lives” over a long period of time while a vaccine is being developed.
“This includes keeping our numbers of contacts low, especially at indoor parties and events, whether in a hall or in our own home,” Henry said. “We have seen transmission from even small events, and the last thing we want to do is pass COVID-19 to those we are closest to.”
Henry also cautioned people to start thinking about how daily life will look like in September. The month will see many students returning to school - and bringing with it the necessity for creating proper and sustainable ways to go about daily lives while limiting the chances to transmit COVID-19 in large numbers.
Currently, nine assisted-living facilities in B.C. have active outbreaks, with all but one (Holy Family Hospital long-term care, Vancouver Coastal Health) located in the Fraser Health region.
B.C. - at one point the envy of other North American jurisdictions for pushing daily new case counts to low-double-digits (or even single digits on select days earlier this summer) - is currently seeing a resurgence of the disease as the province reopened to intra-provincial travel and increased business activity.
Last week, the province began giving police officers the ability to issue fines to people for violating COVID-19 gathering guidelines and limitations, a bid to control the quickly growing new COVID case numbers.
