B.C.’s top doctor sees the silver lining in darkening COVID-19 storm clouds
The provincial health officer found light amid the gloomy COVID-19 numbers on Monday, pointing to British Columbia’s low rate of both undetected transmission and percentage of positive tests.
“We are staying within the range of where we need to be, although it is always fraught and we all have to be careful,” Dr. Bonnie Henry said as she reported 269 cases of COVID -19 over the past three days and one death.
“Despite the recent outbreaks and clusters that we’ve seen in the past week, and the rising case numbers, we still have low, undetected transmission in our province. We are able to find and connect most people who have this disease. We’re still in the high 80 to 90 per cent of being able to find close contacts and to be able to find and link cases here in B.C.”
She said also that despite testing being ramped up to between 4,000 and 5,000 a day, the rate of positive tests had remained relatively low.
B.C. Centre for Disease Control figures show an average rate of positives during the pandemic of 1.5 for every 100 people tested.
The approximately 20,000 tests conducted over the past five days is the most since testing began at the start of the pandemic in January.
The rate of positive tests peaked on April 6 at 7.8 per cent. The lowest point was on June 19 when it was 0.5 per cent.
The most tests conducted in a day was 4,682 on Aug. 22.
Henry said there were 913 active cases of COVID -19 in the province, with 18 of those cases in hospital, including five in intensive care. All of those numbers are on the rise.
She said there were 109 cases reported between noon Friday and noon Saturday, 81 cases between noon Saturday and noon Sunday and 79 cases between noon Sunday and noon Monday. The noon Friday to noon Saturday jump was a B.C. record.
There are 10 active outbreaks in B.C. health care facilities (nine in long-term care homes), including one reported on Sunday at the MSA Manor in Abbotsford.
Henry said an outbreak at the Fraser Valley Packers facility was over, but there continued to be exposures in the community throughout the province and sick people arriving in B.C. by plane.
While the provincial health officer issues notifications of COVID-19 outbreaks in health care facilities and major workplace outbreaks, it’s up to individual health authorities to issue public exposure warnings when contact tracers haven’t been able to find all people who may have come into contact with a COVID -19 positive person.
Henry said that, while the number of cases in the 50-59 age bracket was creeping up, the latest numbers still were being primarily driven by the 20-39 age group.
“There are many more months of this to come,” Henry said. “All of us need to continue to adjust our approach as we learn more about the virus and tailor our activities to the circumstances we have before us.”
B.C. has had 203 COVID-19 deaths, while that number is 9,079 across Canada. In 2018, 8,511 people died from flu-related illnesses in Canada.