The fourth wave of the COVID-19 outbreak that started to spike in late July is showing no signs of slowing down.
A total of 161 new cases were confirmed Friday in the Northern Health region, which raised the total of active cases to 933. Of that total, 420 cases were in the Northern Interior, 151 were in the Northeast and 141 were in the Northwest. The province, in its latest update, reported there were 768 new cases, which brought the provincial total of active cases to 6,031.
Hospitals continue to bear the brunt of the pandemic with 298 people now hospitalized, including 135 being treated in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.
In Prince George, the Jubilee Lodge long-term seniors care facility at UHNBC continues to be the centre of an active outbreak first confirmed on Sept. 5. Twenty residents and three staff members have tested positive for the virus and four other positive cases have been epidemiologically linked to Jubilee. The current outbreak has led to five deaths, two of which were epi-linked.
In response, the hospital has stepped up its cleaning and infection control, has increased symptom monitoring of staff and residents, has reduced movement of staff and residents in the facility and has temporarily suspended social visits not considered essential.
As of Sunday, there were 1,888 deaths in B.C. caused by COVID-19, while 27,934 people in Canada have died from the virus.
As of midday Sunday, the BC Centre for Disease Control was reporting on its website that 4,013,683 (86.6 per cent) of eligible people aged 12 and older have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, while 3.661,611 (79 per cent) have received their second doses.
In the Northern Health region, 184,685 first doses and 158,408 second doses had been administered for a total of 343,093 doses since the vaccine became available to the public in March.
The BCCDC, on its COVID-19 dashboard, provides a breakdown of the age range of COVID cases. Of the 10,362 total cases in Northern Health since the pandemic began in 2020, 54 were aged 90-and-older, 225 were 80-89, 452 were 70-79, 935 were 60-69, 1,384 were 50-59, 1,560 were 40-49, 1,844 were 30-39, 2,011 were 20-29, 1,251 were 10-19, and 646 were younger than 10.
In the week of Sept. 9-15, British Columbians not fully vaccinated accounted for 75.9 per cent of cases and the two weeks from Sept. 2-15 they accounted for 86.2 per cent of hospitalizations. B.C. had 4,804 new cases in the past seven-day period that ended Wednesday and of that total, 3,288 (68.4 per cent) were not vaccinated, 358(7.5 per cent) were partially vaccinated and 1,158 (24.1 per cent) were fully vaccinated.
Of the 384 COVID-related hospitalizations in the province from Sept. 2-15, 310 (80.7 per cent) were not vaccinated, 21 (5.5 per cent) were partially vaccinated and 53 (13.8 per cent) were fully vaccinated.
On Monday, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced it will be mandatory for all health care workers and volunteers in the province to be vaccinated by Oct. 26 as a condition of employment.
On Tuesday, a new provincewide heath order took effect which requires B.C. residents to show proof of at least one vaccine dose and two doses by Oct. 24 to g to dine-in restaurants or attend gyms of ticketed events.
All hockey fans who attended the WHL preseason game at CN Centre between the Cougars and Kamloops Blazers had to show their QR code which shows their vaccination status, along with a piece of government-issued identification, before they were allowed into the building. Similar procedures were being followed at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena, where the Prince George Spruce Kings invited fans to attend intrasquad games Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.
