Wednesday September 30, 2020 | VICTORIA, BC
by Mary P Brooke, B.Sc., Editor | Island Social Trends
There are 9,138 cases of COVID-19 in BC, with 125 of those new today. Active cases number at 1,284 and 3,202 people are under active public health monitoring due to identified exposure.
In today’s statistics there were new cases across all age groups. That includes seven more cases in children under the age of 10 (total 298) and 10 new cases in tweens-and-teens of ages 10 to 19 (total 522).
The age group with the highest number of new cases was 30-39 year of age — with 21 new cases, bringing the total to 1,876. The age group with the highest number of total cases is 20-29 years — with today 16 new cases bringing the total to 2,106.
Hospitalizations:
There have been 769 people in hospital to date in BC due to COVID-19 — currently 72 (21 in intensive care).
There were no new COVID-related deaths in today’s BC Centre for Disease Control (BC CDC) statistics. The total for this year to date is 234.
With BC in the midst of a provincial election, today these numbers came in a written report from Provincial Health Officer Dr Bonnie Henry and Deputy Minister of Health Stephen Brown, with more details made available daily on the BC CDC dashboard.
Outbreaks and exposures:
There have been no new health-care facility outbreaks. In total, 14 long-term care or assisted-living facilities and three acute-care facilities have active outbreaks, it was reported.
“There have been no new community outbreaks, although there continue to be community exposure events around the province,” said Dr Henry in today’s statement.
Learning from COVID:
Today BC NDP Leader John Horgan announced that if his government is re-elected on October 24 that a 10-year $1.4 billion program will be rolled out to change over all long-term care facilities so that accommodation is private (one person per room), including new facility builds.
The $10 million added to underwrite single-site staffing of long-term care homes will continue going forward, said Horgan today in a media teleconference from Surrey. The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the low-wage crisis in the home-care worker sector; many workers took shifts at more than one facility in order to cobble together a living wage.
BC public health knew going into this pandemic that the communal living arrangements in most long-term care facilities would lead to viral transmission. Hence the emphasis from day one on ‘protecting our elders’.
The province could have seen this coming, but no doubt changing over the long-term health care without a driving force would have not been something top of mind in normal political times.
Vancouver Island profile:
There were two new cases on Vancouver Island today (one under the age of 10, and another in the 20-29 year age group); total cases now 208. Three cases are active.
Hospitalizations stand at 25 to date on the island, but no one is presently hospitalized in Island Health. There have been six deaths this year to date on Vancouver Island during COVID (the latest one just this week, a man who died at home with COVID only determined post-mortem).
On Vancouver Island 199 cases are listed as recovered.
Last week Island Health’s Chief Medical Health Officer Dr Richard Stanwick hypothesized on a number of reasons why the case-count of COVID-19 is lower on Vancouver Island than elsewhere in BC, including that perhaps there is less incoming travel and that islanders embrace an outdoor healthy lifestyle.
Earlier this week Dr Henry took another crack at her thoughts on the low Vancouver Island COVID impact, saying she feels people here have taken to heart her appeal that the well-being of elders be heeded.
A unique year:
“This year is unique for all of us, and COVID-19 has required that we connect and show we care in new and different ways,” says Dr Henry. She mentions changing special celebrations in that regard, in order to “keep the people we care about safe”. Thanksgiving is highlighted in that regard, especially as daily new-case numbers remain high (near or beyond 100 per day).
Keeping bubbles small is critical as the second wave is already mounting in BC. “Stay home and stay small,” says Dr Henry about Thanksgiving this year.
It could be argued that British Columbians can feel most thankful this coming Thanksgiving for the relatively gentle ride we’ve had during COVID-19 compared to most other jurisdictions in Canada and around the world.
Safe Halloween requires COVID-awareness:
On September 28, Dr Henry said some COVID Halloween guidelines are coming later this week, to keep everyone safe while having fun. That’s possibly during her livestreamed COVID briefing tomorrow on October 1.
Behind the statistics:
As everyone knows, behind the COVID-19 statistics are all the impacted families, disrupted communities and businesses, and changes in how we carry out our daily lives and social relationships. The mental health impacts of this sudden loss and massive shifts will have ripple effects in society for decades.
