Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.’s provincial health officer, and Adrian Dix, Minister of Health, today (Nov. 12) issued the following joint statement regarding updates on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) response in British Columbia.

Today, we are reporting on two 24-hour periods. From Nov. 10 to 11, we had 536 new cases. In the last 24 hours, we have had a further 594 new cases.

This represents 1,130 new cases of COVID-19, for a total of 20,368 cases in British Columbia.

There are 5,793 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. Currently, 155 individuals are hospitalized with COVID-19, 44 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.

There are 11,091 people under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases and 14,089 people who tested positive have recovered.

We have had 249 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 808 in the Fraser Health region, 16 in the Island Health region, 34 in the Interior Health region, 23 in the Northern Health region and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

There have been four new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 288 deaths in British Columbia. We offer our condolences to everyone who has lost their loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We have six new health-care facility outbreaks at Chartwell Langley Gardens, Peace Portal Seniors Village, The Harrison at Elim Village, Finnish Manor, Dania Home and at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital. The outbreaks at CareLife Fleetwood, Hamilton Village and Mayfair Terrace Retirement Residence are over. In total, 35 long-term care or assisted-living facilities and seven acute-care facilities have active outbreaks.

The latest COVID-19 modelling data shows some highly concerning trends that we all need to pay attention to.

As we have seen in many parts of Canada and the world, here in B.C. the rate of transmission has risen rapidly in the past few weeks. The rate of increase puts all of us at risk. Without a slowdown, it will make it difficult to manage and contain the virus in our province.

While the latest orders may focus on the highest spread in the Lower Mainland, we are seeing notable increases everywhere – in the Interior, on Vancouver Island and in the North.”This is a critical time for us, and we all need to act now.

We need to slow the spread of COVID-19, and we are asking for your support to do that. We need you to pause and step back from your social interactions and to help others do the same.

The data shows us that the virus is able to transmit far more easily in the colder weather when we are spending more time indoors, which means that many of the things that we were able to do safely this summer are no longer safe.

We need to maintain capacity in our health-care system to care for those with COVID-19 and other illnesses, we need to keep our schools open and we need to ensure we can continue the many other essential activities in our communities. That is why we must all act now.

We are asking a lot of everyone and we recognize that what we are asking of you may be hard, so let’s support each other to make this happen. Let’s remember that we know what we need to do, because we have done it before – and we have done it well.

The people of B.C. have been the examples of ‘what to do right,’ of how to support friends and neighbours in our communities and take care of those in need. Let’s continue to be leaders to push our curve back down and protect our loved ones, our elders and our communities.

Lead image: Floor reminder for Sparwood Public Library patrons. Carrie Schafer/e-KNOW photo

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