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Over the weekend, BC recorded 1,120 new cases of COVID-19.

Weekend results in more COVID records in BC

By Hannah Scott, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

Published 4:05 PST, Mon November 2, 2020

Last Updated: 4:14 PST, Mon November 2, 2020

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Over the weekend, BC exceeded its single-day COVID-19 case count three times in a row.

The previous single-day rise was 317 cases, recorded last weekend. This weekend, each 24-hour reporting period had a higher number of new cases: 352 from Friday to Saturday, 389 from Saturday to Sunday and 379 since midday Sunday. In total, there were 1,120 cases recorded over the weekend, bringing BC’s total to 15,501.

About 74 per cent of the new cases were in the Fraser Health region (830 total), and most of the rest were in the Vancouver Coastal Health region (234 total). The other health authorities in the province recorded a relatively small number of new cases over the weekend.

There are 2,945 active cases—an increase of about 550 from Friday’s number—and 6,448 people under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases. Twelve more people are in hospital today, for a total of 90, with 19 of them in critical care. There were six new deaths over the weekend, all residents of longterm care.

There were three new healthcare outbreaks announced, including one at Richmond’s Hamilton Village Care Centre, and one active outbreak declared over. There remain 28 active outbreaks in the healthcare sector, 26 in longterm care or assisted living and two in acute care. No new community outbreaks were announced, and one was declared over.

“These numbers are concerning for all of us, but we have learned a great deal about COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic,” said deputy provincial health officer Dr. Réka Gustafson. “As the weather gets cooler and our activities move inside, we are going to see fluctuations and surges in some communities. We know this from British Columbia, we know this from around the world.”

Gustafson said it’s important for people to continue paying close attention to transmission in communities. Participating fully in contact tracing is a crucial part of the public health process, including responding to calls and answering questions.

“Please remember public health is here to help, not to judge,” said Gustafson.

Interim Health Minister Adrian Dix said hospitals are continuing to manage the pressures of the pandemic well, and the province is making efforts to build its contact tracing capacity. Gustafson added that the contact tracing app used elsewhere in Canada is not being used in BC because, following reviews of its features, “it wasn’t felt that at this point in British Columbia it would have additional value to the existing contact tracing.”

Gustafson said there’s not a specific number of new cases at which more restrictive measures would be considered in BC. She said teams of officials are monitoring a number of statistics in BC including new diagnoses, changing numbers, whether people can identify where they were infected, the ability to follow up in a timely way, and the ability to provide testing.

“We know what we need to do to stop the spread, we know how to do it, and we must all do it right now,” said Dix.

For a listing of the community exposure events, click here.

For the latest medical updates, including case counts, prevention, risks and testing, visit: http://www.bccdc.ca/ or follow @CDCofBC on Twitter.