B.C. set a daily COVID-19 case record Wednesday with 203, while more than 160 people from a Kelowna school are in isolation after three tested positive for the coronavirus.
The case total is the first time the daily count has surpassed 200 in B.C. and comes two days after Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry declared a second wave of the pandemic.
The province also announced two more COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 256, as well as outbreaks at the Three Links Care Centre in Vancouver and École de l’Anse-au-sable, a French language school in Kelowna.
Henry, in a release with Deputy Health Minister Stephen Brown, confirms three people from the Kelowna school tested positive for COVID-19 — the first school in B.C. with an outbreak.
“Public health teams have directed a further approximately 160 members of the school community to self-isolate for 14 days and monitor for symptoms,” she said. “Interior Health will provide ongoing updates as the investigation continues.”
She adds many of the new cases and recent community clusters are directly connected to weddings, funerals, or celebrations of life.
“Times when we traditionally gather with family and friends,” she says.
“With COVID-19 still in our communities, we have seen that even small gatherings are risky right now. Inside or outside, large space or small, the fewer the faces the better.”
Henry says weddings and other important life occasions are a significant source of community transmission, which has spread to health-care facilities, workplaces, and schools.
“Now is the time to keep these celebrations small and to plan for bigger family gatherings at a time when we are no longer putting our seniors, elders, and others at risk.”
The province declared a new COVID-19 outbreak at the Three Links Care Centre in Vancouver, while announcing those at Harrison West at Elim Village and White Rock Seniors Village are over.
Earlier in the day, the Fraser Health Authority announced outbreaks involving staff members at Fort Langley Seniors Community and Baillie House in Maple Ridge.
In total, 18 long-term care or assisted-living facilities and two acute-care units have active outbreaks.
Cases in B.C. now total 12,057.
Of 1,766 active cases, 70 people are in hospital, while 21 are in intensive care.
Another 4,294 people are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases.
The province conducted 10,482 tests for the latest reporting period — almost double those from the day before — with a positivity rate of 1.9 per cent, according to the BC Centre for Disease Control.
The recovery rate in the province is 82 per cent.
