Monday November 30, 2020 | VICTORIA, BC
by Mary P Brooke, B.Sc., editor | Island Social Trends
The numbers are again shocking. And even as Provincial Health Officer Dr Bonnie Henry encourages people to watch the trends over several days at a time, there was no doubt a bit of breathtaking response when she announced today there had been 46 deaths due to COVID-19 this past weekend. That brings the total to 441 deaths in BC during the pandemic to date.
From Friday November 27 to today November 30, the 46 deaths occurred in the lower mainland (35 in Fraser Health and 11 in Vancouver Coastal Health). One woman who died was 103 years old, and in reporting that fact Dr Henry significantly teared up. “Think of what she lived through (in all those years),” she said. Indeed, the magnitude of the indiscriminate cruelty of this virus is simply brazen.
Though Dr Henry did remind the thousands of viewers who tune into her COVID media sessions that there is light… pointing to the pending arrival of vaccines for use against COVID-19. Not here yet, but coming.
Over the past three days there were 2,364 test-positive cases to report. That includes the Fraser Health data correction for November 17-25 (with data as previously reported across our daily articles in Island Social Trends for November 17 to 25), bringing the province’s total COVID test-positive cases to 33,238.
The actual weekend tally was 2,077 cases: 750 Friday-Saturday, 731 Saturday-Sunday, and 596 Sunday-Monday. That’s an average of 692 per day.
Currently 8,855 cases are active. Of the people who are dealing with the active illness, a high number of 316 are in hospital (75 of whom are in intensive care).
Another 10,139 people are self-isolating at home under the watchful eye of public health, following exposure to known cases of COVID-19.
Regional realities:
Most of the new cases are still in the lower mainland areas of Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health. There have been identified challenges in communicating the importance of restricting the size of family gatherings, which may not yet have been thoroughly communicated to some ethnic groups that socialize in large number and live multi-generationally in the same home.
In today’s case profile (for three days over the weekend), the highest number of cases were in Fraser Health (1,365, plus the 277 data correction), with 371 in Vancouver Coastal, 212 in the Interior, 73 in the North, 58 on Vancouver Island, and one for a Canadian who lives outside of Canada.
Vancouver Island focus:
There are 58 new cases of COVID-19 on Vancouver Island in today’s BC Centre for Disease Control statistics. That’s the highest daily case load within Island Health during the pandemic. Total cases 629 to date.
There are 237 active cases, with six of those people in hospital (four in ICU).
No new deaths on Vancouver Island, the total remains at six.
More school exposures have been reported in Port Alberni, and there are still exposures in a few Victoria schools.
The Island Health dashboard shows that the highest number of cases are in the central island region. Of the total 629 cases to date, 200 have been in the south Vancouver Island region, 286 in central and 143 in the north. The highest number of active cases are in the central region (141), with 58 in the south and 37 in the north.
Reminders from the top:
Today Dr Henry said “we are in a significant storm surge… we have to come together again” to keep COVID transmission as low as possible. “We know how to do this,” she repeated again today, with reference to physical distancing, wearing masks, frequent hand washing, staying home if unwell, keeping our social bubbles small, and presently not doing any unnecessary travel and sticking close to home (even for business and working from home).
Health Minister Adrian Dix today reminded about the powerful simplicity of the COVID virus, that it seeks only to transmit itself and using humans by which to do that. With reference to socializing during this ferocious phase of the pandemic, Dix said today: “When in doubt, just rule it out.”
Next live media session:
The next live COVID-19 information session by Dr Henry and Minister Dix will be on Wednesday December 2, likely at the usual time (3 pm).
