Thursday July 16, 2020 ~ VICTORIA, BC
by Mary Brooke, B.Sc., Editor ~ West Shore Voice News
“We are concerned about the increase in new cases in recent days as COVID-19 continues to silently circulate in our communities,” it was stated in a joint statement by BC Health Minister Adrian Dix and Provincial Health Officer Dr Bonnie Henry on Wednesday July 15.
“While early on, many of our long-term care and assisted living facilities were impacted, most of the new cases are in the broader community,” it was stated.
There was no live teleconference yesterday, so this news came in the form of a written statement, along with the usual reporting of COVID-19 stats from the BC Centre for Disease Control database.
No surprise, given increased activity:
For Dr Henry the increases in cases over the past weekend and during this week comes as no surprise. Earlier this week she said the increase was expected as part and parcel of the economy opening up again after the strategic lockdown in during the initial phases of the COVID-19 virus as a pandemic in the community.
She articulated that BC is seeing the results of community activity on the Canada Day holiday (July 1).
Dr Henry has also been clearly saying recently that COVID-19 can cause serious illness in people of any age. This reminder seems to come a bit behind schedule, a type of fallout for having put the emphasis on how COVID-19 was expected to have the greatest impact on ‘seniors and elders’ and those with compromised immune systems and underlying disease. Many youth and young adults appear to have defaulted to feeling invincible to the disease.
Physical distancing is still required for preventing spread of the disease. People are not to be in restaurants in groups larger than six people. Outdoor activities are better than indoors, to help avoid prolonged close contact with people given that that the COVID-19 virus spreads through moist droplets from breath, coughing and sneezing.
Case counts at July 15:
There are 3,149 cases in BC as of July 15 (21 new as of 3 pm). Of those, 207 are active (14 in hospital, and of those five are in ICU). There have been 189 deaths in BC due to COVID-19 (none new on July 15). In BC 2,753 people with a test-positive infection have recovered.
Among children and teens, the tally is now up to 148 (51 in children under age 10, and 97 in youth and teens age 10 to 19). In the young adult age grouping of 20 to 29 years there are 405 cases.
Serology testing announcement on July 16:
This morning July 16 at 8:30 am, Dr Henry and Minister Dix will provide an update on novel coronavirus (COVID-19) serology testing.