The number of active COVID-19 cases in the province has crossed the thousand mark to 1,107 as health officials reported 294 cases of the virus over the weekend.
There were 86 cases from Friday to Saturday, 107 cases from Saturday to Sunday and 101 cases from Sunday to Monday. Seven of the new cases were in the Interior Health Authority which has now seen 440 cases of the virus.
There were also four new deaths across B.C., three of which were seniors in long term care homes, for a total of 208 deaths since the pandemic began.
There are also 28 people now in hospital, of which ten are in critical care. Further, there are now 2,273 people being monitored because of possible close contact with a COVID-19 case.
“The increase in the number of new cases that we have seen over the past few weeks remains a concern for all of us,” Henry said. “And we all have to do our part to ensure community spread remains low, and that we are actively supporting public health teams to manager these new cases.”
“We all needed to reconnect with our family, with friends, with our communities this summer. We travelled, we enjoyed our summer, and many of us recharged. Now, we must slow down on our social interactions, and we must prepare for the respiratory season ahead.”
On a positive note, the Kelowna cluster linked to parties over Canada Day is officially over as there has been a low number of new cases per week for the last month. There have been 173 cases of the virus linked to this cluster.
“Interior Health would like to thank local elected officials, businesses, residents and visitors to Kelowna for their efforts to bring the number of new cases associated with this cluster down over the last month or so,” said Medical Health Officer, Dr. Silvina Mema. “Minimizing the impacts of COVID-19 in Kelowna and all our communities is a collective effort and we encourage everyone to continue following the public health guidance to prevent further spread.”
Heading into the fall, Dr. Henry wants people to ‘slow down’ on social interactions as things begin to cool down. She says we have enjoyed our summer and we must now ‘step back to move forward in the pandemic’.
“We all have to be ready,” Henry added, knowing its hard to say what the fall will bring. She is asking people to go back to the basics – keep groups small, wash hands, physical distancing etc.
There are now 4,406 people who are considered to have recovered.