Province's COVID deaths top 700
Active cases exceed 10,000 once again, but health care staff getting vaccinated
More than 700 British Columbians have died from the coronavirus this year — most of them in the past two months.
B.C. health officials confirmed 673 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, and 21 additional deaths. The updated numbers from Dr. Bonnie Henry, the provincial health officer, and Health Minister Adrian Dix saw total cases rise to 44,776, and total deaths increase to 713.
It took all of two weeks for December's death toll to eclipse the 190 deaths in November, then the deadliest month of B.C.'s pandemic so far, and fatalities continue to climb by double digits. Officials reported 45 people have died in the past two days, the majority seniors and elders in long-term care.
No new outbreaks have been declared in B.C.'s health care system, leaving the total number of facilities contending with outbreaks at 61, including six acute care units throughout the province.
That was the good news Thursday, along with an update on immunizations: 1,215 B.C. health care workers have now received the vaccine, a number that will continue to trickle up as authorities work to protect staff and residents in long-term care and assisted living facilities, where outbreaks have seen the most fatalities.
A total of 1,374 residents in health care facilities are currently battling COVID-19, Henry said Thursday, as well as 735 staff.
“We have seen how devastating these outbreaks can be,” Henry said, “and we are focusing our attention on doing what we can to protect people in long-term care, residents and workers, by focusing our vaccine efforts right now. But it's going to be some time until we can fill that gap and keep people protected.”
The health minister added that restoring some semblance of social life in these communities was a priority.
“Part of the goal of that is not just to keep people safe,” Dix said, “but also to re-establish the kind of life that we would want to have for our loved ones in long-term care, to re-establish social activities in those communities who have been without them more than anyone else, over time.”
Dix added that there will soon be new provincial guidelines for holiday celebration and decorations at assisted-living facilities, following a recent bulletin in which Fraser Health instructed the facilities to remove any holiday decorations from common areas where they could be touched by residents.
The mandate was met with outcry, as many, including B.C. Care Providers Association CEO Terry Lake, called the policy overkill.
Lake said the move was especially hard on residents' mental health, which has already been tested by a year of solitary confinement.
Dix appeared to walk this policy back on Thursday, clarifying that these facilities will be encouraged to decorate as per normal. Still, the health minister encouraged residents to “celebrate safely, stay small and keep their families and communities safe.”
Two new community outbreaks have been reported, at Wingtat Game Bird Packers and at the LNG
Canada site involving Diversified Transportation employees.
Active cases crept back up over 10,000 following a three-day dip as 10,009 British Columbians are currently battling the virus, mostly at home, in self-isolation. Of those, 358 people are being treated in hospital, including 93 in intensive care.
Another 10,338 individuals are under active health monitoring due to close contact with a known COVID-19 case.
A total of 32,963 British Columbians are considered recovered.