Saturday August 29, 2020 ~ BC & NATIONAL
by Mary P Brooke, B.Sc., Editor | Island Social Trends
It’s been about six months since Canadian society and our economy went into pretty much a voluntary lockdown in response to the spread of COVID-19 around the globe.
Most of Canada’s industry and institutions went into a coma-like state in quick succession in mid-March and only began re-emerging in government-led ‘economic recovery’ in mid to late May.
Now at the end of August we’ve learned to physically distance, wash our hands frequently, wear a mask, and how to follow many other techniques and guidelines as advised by public health to greatly reduce exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 (aka COVID-19) virus.
So long as there is no effective treatment or a vaccine against COVID-19, the now-opened society and economy — operating in a much different fashion than pre-COVID — will need to deal with the continued threat of infection. This is said by medical and public health experts to be something that could continue in 2022.
Case counts in Canada:
In Canada to August 29 there are 127,673 test-positive cases recorded from across the country (but not including BC and Alberta which do not submit numbers on the weekends).
In BC the case tally is 5,496, in Alberta there have been 13,476 cases, in Saskatchewan 1,615 cases and 1,151 cases in Manitoba.
New cases are introduced through travel of people between provinces, and community spread is seen to be resulting from social gatherings where physical distancing is not properly maintained.
Of Canada’s total cases, 5,059 are presently active. That means over 5,000 families are still dealing with self-isolation and the economic impacts associated with that, as well as the mental strain.
COVID death tally:
There have been 9,113 deaths so far during the pandemic in Canada as of August 29. Higher death counts are seen in more densely populated regions.
In BC the total is 204, in Alberta 237, in Saskatchewan 24, and 14 in Manitoba. The highest death tallies due to COVID are seen in Quebec (5,755) and Ontario (2,809). In Atlantic Canada there have been 65 deaths in Nova Scotia, but only three in Newfoundland and Labrador, and two in New Brunswick. There have been no deaths on Prince Edward Island.
BC profile (August 28):
Of the COVID deaths in Canada, 204 have occurred in BC (2.2%). That low percentage can largely be contributed to the successful initial phases of public education by public health which produced a stay-at-home and social-distancing response to keep infection spread low.
Case counts have been increasing significantly over July and August in BC, however, due to increased social activity in some segments of the population.
There are presently 982 active cases in BC, and 2,796 people under public health watch in self-isolation due to expected or known exposure to the COVID-19 virus.
On Friday August 28, BC saw its highest one-day case count at 124, which could complicate the success of back-to-school in September if case numbers continue to rise.
