VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — While B.C. continues to report a high number of COVID-19 cases and deaths, the province’s top doctor says she hopes the trend we saw in mid-December with minimum transmission will continue.
New infections were under the 500-mark for several days at the end of December before jumping up again on New Year’s Eve.
“The more people we see, the higher our risks are, which is why keeping our groups small and using our layers of protection is so important right now,” Dr. Bonnie Henry says in a release.
In the last day, COVID-19 has claimed another eight British Columbians’ lives and infected 428 more people.
BC's #covid19 update Jan 5
Day's update has alert for #Revelstoke because of increased cases there-this is unusual
New cases & deaths/day down-this is good
LTC/acute care outbreaks still high-not good
Cases up 6-8 days after Xmas. Trmw is 6 days after NYEve#bcpoli @NEWS1130 https://t.co/rV345UxbPt pic.twitter.com/r0S49CNVyt— LizaYuzda (@LizaYuzda) January 6, 2021
B.C. has now recorded a total of 54,629 cases and 954 deaths.
The number of hospitalizations because of the virus is still high, with 77 of the 367 patients in intensive care.
New cases per health region:
90 Vancouver Coastal Health
223 Fraser Health
9 Island Health
61 Interior
45 Northern
0 non-residents of Canada*Only 5915 tests done over the last 24 hours, so not clear if lower positive results are linked to that
— Marcella Bernardo (@Bernardo1130) January 6, 2021
This is the first day cases dipped below while St. Paul’s hospital is facing its third outbreak, this time in the heart centre.
Meanwhile, a public alert has been issued for the Revelstoke region, where community transmission and new cases of COVID-19 have increased substantially in recent days.
Henry added, so far, 28,209 people have received a COVID-19 vaccine in the province.
“Our focus is to ensure we safely deliver the vaccines as quickly as possible to communities across the province, using all available supply,” the statement reads.
“While the focus is on first-priority populations in the next three months, as new vaccines are approved and additional supply becomes available, we will incorporate the additional doses into our distribution to enable as many people as possible to be immunized as soon as they can.”
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Meantime, the provincial state of emergency has been extended again, through the end of the day on Jan. 19.
– With files from Kathryn Tindale
