The number of people that health officials are monitoring for symptoms of COVID-19 in B.C. has been steadily rising since the B.C. government started to regularly release these numbers earlier this month.
There are now 2,810 people being monitored for the deadly virus in the province because they have come into contact with people who are known to have contracted the disease.
The rise in the number of people under observation is in part because the number of known cases continues to increase. Provincial health officer Bonnie Henry revealed August 27 that 68 people have been identified as carrying the virus in the past 24 hours, making the total number of known infections 5,372 since the virus first appeared in the province in January. The average number of people who have contracted the virus in B.C. each day this month is more than 64.1, or more than double that in July, when the average number of new daily cases was more than 23.7.
• 1,737 in Vancouver Coastal Health (up 38);
• 2,818 in Fraser Health (up 23);
• 429 in Interior Health (no change);
• 137 in Northern Health (up four); and
• 78 people who reside outside Canada (no change).
There are now 906 people actively battling infections, with 22 of those in hospital, including seven patients who are in intensive care units. Most of those battling the disease are self-isolating at home.
One more person, a senior in long-term care, has died, raising the death toll from the novel coronavirus to 204. There are 4,253 people who have fully recovered.
Seniors' living facilities and care homes have been a significant source of cases and deaths.
So far 714 people have contracted COVID-19 as a result of being in these facilities – 432 residents and 282 employees.
Two outbreaks remain at healthcare facilities: Langley Memorial Hospital and Queen's Park Care Centre.
The outbreak at Arbutus Care Centre in Vancouver is now officially over.
That leaves nine active outbreaks at seniors' homes, at:
•Holy Family Hospital in Vancouver;
•Czorny Alzheimer Centre in Surrey;
•Dania Home in Burnaby;
•Derby Manor in Burnaby;
•George Derby Centre in Burnaby;
•New Vista Care Home in Burnaby;
•Maple Ridge Seniors Village in Maple Ridge;
•MSA Manor long-term care facility in Abbotsford (second outbreak); and
•Bear Creek Villa in Surrey.
One new community outbreak has been identified outside Elkford in the Interior Health region: a Teck Resources construction site for a water treatment facility. There are seven cases identified so far from this outbreak, with six of those people being Albertan workers who have returned home. The other worker is a British Columbian.
Henry said that she was not aware how many workers at the camp were potentially exposed.
"It was after they had returned home," Henry said. "There's a rotation that happens every two weeks as I understand it."
She said that she was aware of the cases earlier this week and health officials contact-traced those who have tested positive.
