260 new COVID cases over weekend in B.C.

More than 260 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed since Friday, but B.C. is still doing a good job of limiting the virus’ spread through contact tracing, says provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.

There have been 269 new cases confirmed since Friday – 109 between Friday and Saturday, 81 between Saturday and Sunday and 79 since Sunday.

There has been only one new death since then, however.

“Despite the recent outbreaks and clusters that we have seen in the past week, and the rising case numbers, we still have low undetected transmission in our province,” Henry said Monday. “We are able to find and connect most people who have this disease.”

B.C. has lately ramped up testing to 4,000 to 5,000 tests per day. Henry said the test positive results remain “relatively low.” She would be worried if the test positive numbers started climbing.

“Right now we are staying within the range of where we need to be,” Henry said.

Henry suggested that everyone has to learn to live with the reality of the virus and not expect it to suddenly disappear.

“There are many more months of this to come,” she said.

While Henry said that there has been a recent increase in infections among people in their 50s and 60s, the vast majority of the new cases are in younger people, and many of the sources of transmission are larger gatherings and private parties.

Last week, B.C. introduced new fines for individuals who hold large parties, and some hosts have already received $2,000 fines for hosting parties that breach the rules around physical distancing and limiting the number of people in a confined space.

“I think that it’s the right thing to do and I think it’s being used in the right way — very judiciously,” Henry said. “We want to do it in a progressive way for those who really are breaking the rules intentionally.”

There has been one additional outbreak in a longterm care centre — MSA Manor in Abbotsford.

Henry said a number of recent outbreaks in longterm care facilities is limited to a single case.

A total of eight new COVID-19 were reported in Interior Health since Friday, bringing the total number of cases in IH since the start of the pandemic to 425.

Of these, 21 cases are active and on isolation but no one is in hospital.

Within IH, the cases linked to Kelowna since June 26 rose to 170 over the weekend. Six are active and in isolation.

The outbreak at Okanagan Correctional Centre in Oliver remains at seven cases (all staff). Four are active.