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There have now been 18 cases of COVID-19 “variants of concern,” said provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry today.
B.C. now up to 18 cases of COVID-19 variants
By Hannah Scott, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
Published 4:00 PST, Mon February 1, 2021
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Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said B.C. has now seen 18 cases of COVID-19 “variants of concern.”
Four of the cases are of the so-called South African variant—the same number as Friday’s update. But the number of cases of the United Kingdom variant grew to 14 since Friday. Of those cases, four are on Vancouver Island, one in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, one in the Interior Health region and eight in the Fraser Health region. Most are related to travel, or are close contacts of travellers.
Additional testing is taking place, including whole genome sequencing, in an attempt to establish where variant cases are and where they’re spreading. About 80 students at a Maple Ridge high school are being tested as they were identified as contacts of a person whose family member has tested positive for a variant of concern.
Regarding upcoming occasions including the Super Bowl, Lunar New Year and Family Day, Henry told people that “this year we do need to celebrate safely.” She said there should be no gatherings of any size in households, and no Super Bowl viewing parties at restaurants either.
“If we are not able to control this, and start seeing spread again, we can undo all the good work that we have done,” said Henry. “Stay apart, stay small, stay local.”
There were 1,158 new cases of COVID-19 over the weekend: 408 from Friday to Saturday, 473 from Saturday to Sunday and a further 277 in the last 24 hours. Four of the weekend’s cases are epidemiologically linked.
Of the new cases, 295 are in the Vancouver Coastal Health region (including Richmond), 493 in the Fraser Health region, 78 in the Island Health region, 194 in the Interior Health region and 98 in the Northern Health region.
There are 4,134 active cases in BC and 289 people in hospital with COVID-19, 79 of whom are in critical care. A further 7,242 people are under active public health monitoring.
Sadly, 21 people lost their lives to the virus over the weekend, bringing that total to 1,210.
There was one new healthcare outbreak announced at a long-term care home in Kamloops, and two outbreaks were declared over. In total, there are 32 outbreaks in the healthcare sector, 24 in long-term care or assisted living facilities and eight in acute care facilities. These outbreaks are currently affecting 801 residents and 430 staff members.
To date, 138,892 vaccines have been administered in B.C., including 134,401 first doses and 4,491 second doses.
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