New cases of COVID-19 jump in New Westminster in November – by far the worst month for the city since the start of the pandemic.
The latest data from the BC Centre for Disease Control show New Westminster had a total of 356 COVID-19 cases in November.
That’s a huge jump from the 94 cases New West had in all of October and 71 cases in September.
According to the BCCDC, New Westminster has now seen 624 COVID-19 cases between Jan. 1 and Nov. 30, 2020.
Some of the cases came from a small outbreak at Royal Columbian Hospital in November, an outbreak that has been declared over. Care homes in the city, including Queen's Park Care Centre, have also seen outbreaks, according to Fraser Health.
B.C. set a grim new record Dec. 10, with 28 new COVID-19-related deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths from the virus in the province to 587.
"All but two of these people were elders or seniors, who were in long-term care homes in various places across B.C.," provincial health officer Bonnie Henry told media.
The rising number of deaths has followed a rise in the number of people actively infected with the virus, which now stands at a record 9,524. The vast majority of those people are self-isolating at home, although 346 are in hospital, including a record 83 people in intensive care units.
- With files from Glen Korstrom, Glacier Media
