While case counts remained about the same as yesterday, data reveals there have been overall increases this past week.

Meanwhile, eleven schools, one school administration centre, one grocery store, and one flight have all had confirmed cases present, and there is one new healthcare outbreak.

Daily update: October 9

B.C. provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Deputy Health Minister Stephen Brown announced 119 new cases in B.C. today.

Once again, the number of active cases rose only slightly. Currently, there are 1,406 active cases, which is up 12 cases from yesterday.

A good sign is that hospitalized cases have decreased. Today, there are 68 individuals in hospital (eight people less than yesterday), with 19 of those patients in intensive care units (one less than yesterday).

Public health is monitoring 3,180 people—an increase of 41 people from yesterday.

Unfortunately, there is one new healthcare outbreak at the Good Samaritan Delta View Care Centre (9341 Burns Drive) in Delta. Active healthcare outbreaks remain in 18 facilities (15 longterm care or assisted-living facilities and three acute-care units).

Good news—there aren’t any new community outbreaks.

Thankfully, there weren’t any new deaths. The total number of fatalities remains at 245 people who have died.

Over the course of the pandemic, B.C. has confirmed a cumulative total of 10,185 cases, including: 

• 3,728 cases in Vancouver Coastal Health;
• 5,253 in Fraser Health;
• 559 in Interior Health;
• 331 in Northern Health;
• 225 in Island Health;
• 89 people who live outside Canada.

A total of 8,502 people (83 percent of all cases) have recovered.

Weekly surveillance report: October 2 to 8

Although Henry had said during the monthly data that B.C.’s curve appears to be flattening, data shows some gains over the past week.

In this week’s B.C. surveillance report from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC), cases increased in many categories.

The number of new cases increased by 169 cases this week (846 new cases) from the week prior (677 new cases).

Also, active cases grew by 166 cases this week (1,394 active cases) from the week before (1,261 active cases).

Although the number of hospitalized cases had shown stabilization in past weeks, the number of hospital admissions have been increasing over the past four days.

While there was much concern about the virus spreading rapidly amongst young adults, case counts are decreasing in age groups from ages 20 to 38 years old.

School exposures

(Please note that this is not a list of all schools that have had exposure incidents in them since schools reopened—it is an update on new exposure incidents added to regional health authority lists over the past day.)

Regional health authorities have added 11 schools and one administrative centre to their lists of exposure incidents.

Vancouver Coastal Health has added two schools to its list.

One is Prince of Wales Mini School (4750 Haggart Street) with exposures on October 1, 2, and 5.

The second school is Kingswood Elementary (11511 King Road) in Richmond with an exposure event from October 5 to 6.

Fraser Health has added eight schools and one administration centre to its list.

In Coquitlam, Miller Park Elementary (800 Egmont Avenue) had an exposure event from September 30 to October 2.

In Port Coquitlam, École Pitt River Middle (2070 Tyner Street) had an exposure event from September 30 to October 1.

In Port Moody, Seaview Elementary School (1215 Cecile Drive) has an exposure incident on October 1.

In Surrey, several schools were added:

• City Central Learning Centre (13104 109 Avenue) had an exposure incident on October 6;

• David Brankin Elementary (9160 128 Street) had an exposure event from October 1 to 2;

• École Panorama Ridge Secondary (13220 64 Avenue), which previously had exposure incidents on September 8 and 10, has had a new exposure event from September 30 to October 1;

• Lord Tweedsmuir Elementary (1714 8th Avenue), which had previous exposures from September 14 to 15 and September 24 to 25, has added October 2 as an exposure incident;

• Tamanawis Secondary School (12600 66 Avenue), which previously had incidents on September 17 and 30, had added October 2 and 6 as new exposure dates.

Also, the District Education Centre (14033 92 Avenue), the administration centre for Surrey Schools, had an exposure incident on September 30.

Interior Health has added Clarence Fulton Secondary School (2301 Fulton Road) in Vernon with an exposure event from October 5 to 8.

Stores and flights

Loblaw announced today that Sahota’s No Frills (1460 East Hastings Street) in Vancouver had an employee, who last worked at the location on September 26), who tested positive.

The BCCDC added only one flight confirmed with COVID-19 to its list: Air Canada/Lufthansa flight 9101/492 from Frankfurt to Vancouver on October 4. Affected rows were not reported.

Anyone on this flight should monitor themselves for 14 days after the flight. Anyone who develops symptoms should call 811 for testing information and immediately self-isolate.