New COVID-19 cases in New Westminster jumped to their highest level in more than two months, according to the latest data from the BC Centre for Disease Control, despite a drop in outbreaks at long-term care homes.
BCCDC data show New Westminster had a total of 78 cases from March 21 to 27 – up from the 63 cases between March 14 and 20, the 73 cases from March 7 to 13, the 67 new cases between Feb. 28 and March 6, and the 71 new coronavirus cases between Feb. 21 and 27 – the same number as Feb.14 and 20. These past few weeks have been up sharply from the 46 cases from Feb. 7 to 13, and the 50 new coronavirus cases between Jan. 31 and Feb. 6, but down from the 85 new coronavirus cases between Jan. 24 and 30.
With a record 1,013 new COVID-19 infections reported on Wednesday, B.C. has passed the 100,000 threshold for total known cases.
So far, B.C. health officials have detected 100,048 cases of the virus. Of those, more than 91%, or 91,066 people are what the province considers recovered.
The province lists 7,405 people as actively battling infections, and 1,458 people as having died, which leaves 119 people unaccounted for, with provincial officials having told Glacier Media that a likely reason being that the individuals left the province and did not update authorities.
The 7,405 people actively infected is the highest total provided so far in 2021. B.C. announced that there were 7,803 people actively infected on December 31, and then did not provide another update until January 4, when it said 6,823 people were known to be infected.
Health officials are closely monitoring another 11,468 people for symptoms because they have had known contact with individuals identified as carrying the virus. That is the highest number since December 11, when officials were monitoring 12,008 individuals.
Here is the breakdown of where the 1,013 newly infected people reside, by health region:
• 385 in Vancouver Coastal Health (38%);
• 458 in Fraser Health (45.2%);
• 47 in Island Health (4.6%);
• 64 in Interior Health (6.3%);
• 60 in Northern Health (5.9%); and
• no people who reside outside Canada.
The spread of mutant strains of COVID-19 continues to be a concern because they are thought to spread more easily, and have been linked in B.C. to causing an increase in intensive care visits among younger people who have been admitted to hospital.
The province, however, did not release any new data related to the variants because of what it called a "delay in the sequencing analysis."
- With additional reporting by Glen Korstrom, Glacier Media
