Vaccines give hope, but B.C. still in COVID battle, 619 new cases

Dec 9, 2020 | 4:35 PM Pete McIntyre

While COVID-19 vaccines are on the way to B.C., the pandemic is far from over.

More evidence of that came Wednesday with 619 new cases announced, including 81 in Interior Health.

There has also been 16 more COVID-related deaths, bringing the death toll to 559.

“I think it’s going to be even more exciting next week when we start putting vaccines into people’s arms, but for today, the reason why this is so auspicious of a day is because we still have COVID circulating in our province,” said Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer.

There are now 39,337 total cases in B.C.

9,982 – Vancouver Coastal (up 121)
24,942 – Fraser Health (up by 384)
740 – Island Health (up by 5)
2,420 – Interior Health (up by 81)
1,159 – Northern Health (up by 27)
96 – Reside outside of Canada (up by 1)

The province has 9,329 active cases, with 338 people in hospital including 75 in intensive care.

Within Interior Health, there are 656 active cases with 16 people in hospital including four in intensive care.

The number of COVID-related deaths in IH remains at six.

Interior Health said 27 residents and two staff have tested positive for COVID-19 at McKinney long-term care in Oliver.

“We would like to reassure all families of McKinney Place that we are working hard to contain the COVID-19 outbreak in a number of ways. This includes: enhanced cleaning, cohorting staff so they work only with a specific group of patients, and by continuing targeted testing and expedited test results. Residents with COVID-19 are being monitored closely for more severe illness and everyone remains stable at this time. Staff are reaching out to designated family contacts to provide an update on their loved one in care. We understand families have concerns and we are committed to reaching out to designated contacts as quickly as possible. There remains no indications of COVID-19 transmission to the South Okanagan General Hospital,” said IH media relations.

People under active public health monitoring due to exposure to known COVID-19 cases is up to 11,526 in B.C.

There are now 28,448 people considered fully recovered, which is 72 per cent of all the cases.