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Henry says B.C. is in second wave of COVID-19 pandemic

B.C. is in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said at her daily pandemic press conference Monday.
Dr. Bonnie Henry
Dr. Bonnie Henry

B.C. is in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said at her daily pandemic press conference Monday.

In addition to announcing a total of 327 new cases and two new deaths between Sunday and Monday, bringing the total number of cases so far in B.C. since the pandemic began, Henry went on to say that we have control over what the province’s second wave will look like.
Henry said we are not seeing exponential growth, despite the fact that we have more people in hospitals today than we did a few weeks ago. There are currently 19 active outbreaks in the healthcare system: 17 in long-term care and 2 in acute care.

Henry announced a new community outbreak at J&L Beef Ltd. in the Fraser Health region. As well, there are also four additional healthcare outbreaks. These are at the Village in Langley, Rosemary Heights Senior Village, Zion Park Manor and the Royal Arch Masonic Home, which is the second occurrence at that facility.

On a positive note, two outbreaks have been declared over: the ones at Banfield Pavilion and Yaletown House.

B.C.’s COVID-19 statistics as of Monday October 19, 2020 are:

  • 153 new cases on Sunday
  • 174 new cases on Monday
  • 7 epidemiologically linked
  • 11,687 total cases

The locations of the outbreaks have been:

  • 4,146 Vancouver Coastal
  • 6,244 Fraser Health
  • 243 Vancouver Island
  • 611 Interior Health region
  • 355 Northern Health
  • 88 cases in people that generally reside outside of Canada (this has decreased by one because of a data correction)

Currently, B.C. has:

  • 1,639 active cases
  • 67 in hospital
  • 19 critical care/ICU
  • 2 additional deaths
  • 4,028 people under public health monitoring

The province, so far, has seen 9,753 recoveries.

Henry also discussed this year’s Halloween celebration. While other provinces are discouraging people from taking part in trick-or-treating, Henry said that she does not intend to follow the same path. Henry said that trick-or-treating is a low risk activity because it’s outdoors and because B.C. has a relatively low case number compared to other provinces. However, she did emphasise that those who plan to celebrate Halloween should keep things small and respect those who decide not to.

BIV