New COVID-19 cases in New Westminster saw a slight drop, according to the latest data from the BC Centre for Disease Control.
BCCDC data show New Westminster had a total of 67 new cases between Feb. 28 and March 6 – down slightly from the 71 new coronavirus cases between Feb. 21 and 27 – the same number as Feb.14 and 20. These past three weeks were 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.
The weekly numbers come as the worst COVID-19 outbreak in New Westminster was declared over.
The long-term care unit at Royal City Manor had a coronavirus outbreak that started on Jan. 3, and it reached at 133 cases and 31 deaths, according to the BCCDC
Fraser Health has also declared a COVID-19 outbreak at Royal Columbian Hospital after evidence of transmission in a medicine unit.
At least five patients at Royal Columbian Hospital have tested positive for COVID-19 as part of this outbreak, said Fraser Health. The outbreak is limited to one unit, which is temporarily closed to admissions.
“Upon declaring the outbreak, Fraser Health immediately implemented precautions, including enhanced cleaning as well as contact tracing to protect the health of all staff, medical staff, and patients,” said a news release.
The emergency department at Royal Columbian Hospital remains open and there has been no impact to any other areas of Royal Columbian Hospital.
Fraser Health said it has notified all patients on the affected unit about the outbreak, and in addition, have informed the families of patients who are unable to share this information.
B.C. continued to rack up an average of more than 500 new COVID-19 cases per day, with 531 new infections detected in the 24 hours between Tuesday and Wednesday, raising the number of cases since the virus was first discovered in the province to 85,650. More than 92.5% of those infected, or 79,309 people, are considered to have recovered because they have had two negative tests for the virus.
Some concern is that the number of infections that are considered to be of mutant strains of the virus, or variants of concern, are rising fast, and that those variants are thought to spread more easily.
Health officials test for variants after they have initially detected that an individual has COVID-19, so all newly determined variant cases were not necessarily cases that were discovered overnight.
Nonetheless, B.C. reported that officials had discovered overnight 51 new COVID-19 cases that are variants of concern, for a total of 627 cases.
