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B.C. records deadliest day during COVID-19 pandemic, 723 new cases

B.C. records 28 deaths in past 24 hours
Jess Balzer
Jess Balzer
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B.C. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry. (via THE CANADIAN PRESS)

While yesterday gave a small glimmer of hope with B.C. announcing vaccinations for COVID-19 will start next week, this afternoon was a different story.

In a live press conference this afternoon (Dec. 10), Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced 723 recorded in the past day for a new provincial total of 40,060. 

Of those, Northern Health has 40, which brings the authority recorded number to 1,199..

There are 9,524 people listed as active for COVID-19 throughout the province, 346 are in hospital with 83 in critical care. 

Another 11,947 are under active public health monitoring after being exposed to someone infected with the virus while 28,948 have been classified as fully recovered. 

It was an extremely sombre day, with Henry a record 28 deaths in B.C in the past day which raises the fatality rate to 587.

Yesterday, B.C. Premier John Horgan and Henry announced British Columbians would begin being vaccinated next week, with 4,000 doses set to arrive. 

“Today is actually an incredibly important and positive day,” said provincial health officer Bonnie Henry.

She added tens of thousands of vaccines should be in the province by January. 

Henry said front-line health care workers will be first in line for the vaccinations. By the end of March, the province plans to have 400,000 British Columbians vaccinated – ten per cent of the population.

While the elderly in long-term care homes are a priority population for COVID-19 vaccinations, they will not be among the first to receive vaccinations, due to the nature of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine, which is fussy and fragile and requires specialized storage. It can therefore not be readily brought into care homes.

Elderly residents of long-term care homes will therefore have to wait for Health Canada to approve a vaccine from Moderna, which can be more easily transported and stored.

Initially, the province will set up two vaccination sites, one in the Vancouver Coastal Health Region, the other in the Fraser Health Region. By late December or early January, nine sites will be set up throughout B.C.

Next, after front-line health care workers, priority populations to receive the vaccines will include certain vulnerable populations, including the homeless and some First Nations.

With hope on the horizon, there is still a large concern in the north as cases and hospitalizations continue to soar. 

Fort St. James has seen a major increase of cases which prompted BC Emergency Health Services (BCEHS) to deploy its Major Incident Rapid Response Team to Fort St. James and Nak’azdli Whut’en.

PrinceGeorgeMatters has reached out to BCEHS to clarify the number of cases within the communities, but it has yet to respond. 

The Vancouver-based unit is set to help local paramedics and patients, originally created for pandemic response efforts when the virus first hit the province in January.

The apparent rise in cases has forced Nak’azdli Whut’en to put its community on lockdown for two weeks as of Friday (Dec. 4), but there’s a possibility of an extended lockdown if residents choose not to cooperate.

“Our workers are getting very tired,” reads a Nation statement on its Facebook page as it welcomes the news of more paramedics arriving to help.

“They are our community members too and we need to make sure they are ok. All they are asking is that you do your part.”

Northern Health also announced this afternoon (Dec. 10) a secondary precautionary outbreak has been declared at Prince George's Gateway Lodge. 

The authority says a second staff member tested positive for COVID-19 after the first precautionary outbreak was declared on Dec. 3.

The new case has been listed at the Special Care Unit in the East Wing. 

The first case involved the Cedar Wing (upper west wing, second floor), which has now been lifted. 

Northern Health says there is still no evidence of transmission among staff and residents at Gateway. 

"Northern Health long-term care facilities have implemented very clear policies and procedures for COVID-19 infection prevention and control, and reducing the risk of transmission to residents, staff and physicians at Gateway," a release states this afternoon (Dec. 10). 

"The precautionary outbreak declaration for Gateway’s Special Care Unit will be in place until at least December 16, 2020, which is 14 days after any potential exposure to confirmed cases at the facility. If there is still no evidence of transmission of illness after that time, the outbreak can be declared over."

Dr. Bonnie Henry said in an interview with PrinceGeorgeMatters on Dec. 3 that the current situation in the north is concerning. 

"It's concerning because we now have quite a few people who are in hospital in the north and we all know that the capacity in the north for critical care and hospital care is limited and we want to make sure we have the resources for everybody who needs health care in the north."

In a conference this afternoon, Interim BC Liberal Leader and Prince George-Valemount MLA Shirley Bond said she's very concerned and that health critic Renee Merrifield has called for a specific briefing on the situation.

“This is not about being critical of Dr. Bonnie Henry, but there's a growing sense of concern about the data, the sharing of information and how that's done. We need to be careful and balanced in that approach, but as you can imagine the community of Fort St. James, Prince George and the surrounding areas are concerned. They don’t know what’s happening.”

- With files from Kyle Balzer, PrinceGeorgeMatters