VICTORIA – Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.’s provincial health officer, and Adrian Dix, Minister of Health, have issued the following joint statement regarding updates on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) response in British Columbia:

“Today, we are reporting on two 24-hour periods. From Nov. 10 to 11, we had 536 new cases. In the last 24 hours, we have had a further 594 new cases.

“This represents 1,130 new cases of COVID-19, for a total of 20,368 cases in British Columbia.

“There are 5,793 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. Currently, 155 individuals are hospitalized with COVID-19, 44 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.

“There are 11,091 people under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases and 14,089 people who tested positive have recovered.

“We have had 249 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 808 in the Fraser Health region, 16 in the Island Health region, 34 in the Interior Health region, 23 in the Northern Health region and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

“There have been four new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 288 deaths in British Columbia. We offer our condolences to everyone who has lost their loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have six new health-care facility outbreaks at Chartwell Langley Gardens, Peace Portal Seniors Village, The Harrison at Elim Village, Finnish Manor, Dania Home and at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital. The outbreaks at CareLife Fleetwood, Hamilton Village and Mayfair Terrace Retirement Residence are over. In total, 35 long-term care or assisted-living facilities and seven acute-care facilities have active outbreaks.

“The latest COVID-19 modelling data shows some highly concerning trends that we all need to pay attention to.

“As we have seen in many parts of Canada and the world, here in B.C. the rate of transmission has risen rapidly in the past few weeks. The rate of increase puts all of us at risk. Without a slowdown, it will make it difficult to manage and contain the virus in our province.

“While the latest orders may focus on the highest spread in the Lower Mainland, we are seeing notable increases everywhere – in the Interior, on Vancouver Island and in the North.

“This is a critical time for us, and we all need to act now.

“We need to slow the spread of COVID-19, and we are asking for your support to do that. We need you to pause and step back from your social interactions and to help others do the same.

“The data shows us that the virus is able to transmit far more easily in the colder weather when we are spending more time indoors, which means that many of the things that we were able to do safely this summer are no longer safe.

“We need to maintain capacity in our health-care system to care for those with COVID-19 and other illnesses, we need to keep our schools open and we need to ensure we can continue the many other essential activities in our communities. That is why we must all act now.

“We are asking a lot of everyone and we recognize that what we are asking of you may be hard, so let’s support each other to make this happen. Let’s remember that we know what we need to do, because we have done it before – and we have done it well.

“The people of B.C. have been the examples of ‘what to do right,’ of how to support friends and neighbours in our communities and take care of those in need. Let’s continue to be leaders to push our curve back down and protect our loved ones, our Elders and our communities.”

Learn More:

To learn more about today’s modelling presentation, visit:
http://www.bccdc.ca/health-info/diseases-conditions/covid-19/modelling-projections

To find the PHO’s orders, visit:
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/health/about-bc-s-health-care-system/office-of-the-provincial-health-officer/current-health-topics/covid-19-novel-coronavirus

Guidance on new restrictions for those in the Fraser and Vancouver Coastal Health regions: http://gov.bc.ca/regionalrestrictions

Businesses in the Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health regions with group physical activities can submit their plans to: ehvc@vch.ca
Or worksitefitnessplans@fraserhealth.ca

BCCDC’s safer celebrations guidance, including for Remembrance Day:
http://www.bccdc.ca/health-info/diseases-conditions/covid-19/social-interactions/safer-celebrations

BCCDC national and international COVID-19 epidemiological data:
https://bccdc.shinyapps.io/covid19_global_epi_app/

To see a map of COVID-19 cases by local health area, visit: 
http://www.bccdc.ca/health-info/diseases-conditions/covid-19/data

If you are experiencing symptoms, find a collection centre near you to get tested: 
http://www.bccdc.ca/health-info/diseases-conditions/covid-19/testing

For mental health and anxiety support, visit: www.bouncebackbc.ca
Or: www.anxietycanada.com

For a listing of the community exposure events, go to:
BCCDC (flights, work sites, etc.): http://www.bccdc.ca/health-info/diseases-conditions/covid-19/public-exposures
Fraser Health: fraserhealth.ca/covid19exposure
Interior Health: https://news.interiorhealth.ca/news/public-exposures/
Island Health: https://www.islandhealth.ca/learn-about-health/covid-19/outbreaks-and-exposures
Northern Health: https://www.northernhealth.ca/health-topics/outbreaks-and-exposures
Vancouver Coastal: http://www.vch.ca/covid-19/public-exposures

For the latest medical updates, including case counts, prevention, risks and testing, visit: http://www.bccdc.ca/
Or follow @CDCofBC on Twitter.

For non-health related information, including financial, child care and education supports, travel, transportation and essential service information, visit: www.gov.bc.ca/covid19
Or call 1 888 COVID19 (1 888 268-4319) between 7:30 a.m. and 8 p.m. (Pacific time), seven days a week.

For the latest videos and livestreaming of COVID-19 media availabilities, visit:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BCProvincialGovernment/ 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BCGovNews
YouTube: www.youtube.com/ProvinceofBC

Three backgrounders follow.

Vancouver Coastal Health – eight facilities

• Banfield Pavilion
• Haro Park Centre (second occurrence)
• Lakeview Care Centre
• Louis Brier Home & Hospital
• Pinegrove Place
• Royal Arch Masonic Home (second occurrence)
• Three Links Care Centre
• Yaletown House

Fraser Health – 25 facilities

• Agassiz Seniors Community
• Amenida Seniors Community
• Belvedere Care Centre
• Dania Home (second occurrence)
• Chartwell Langley Gardens (second occurrence)
• Evergreen Baptist Care Society
• Fellburn Care Centre
• Finnish Manor
• Fort Langley Seniors Community
• Good Samaritan Delta View Care Centre
• Harrison Pointe
• Holyrood Manor
• Laurel Place
• Hawthorne Seniors Care Community – long-term care
• Hawthorne Senior Care Community – assisted living
• Normanna (second occurrence)
• Northcrest Care Centre
• Peace Portal Seniors Village (second occurrence)
• Rosemary Heights Seniors Village
• St. Michael’s Centre
• Suncreek Village
• Tabor Home (second occurrence)
• The Harrison at Elim Village (second occurrence)
• The Residence in Mission
• White Rock Senior Village (second occurrence)

Northern Health – one facility

• Rotary Manor Dawson Creek

Interior Health – one facility

• Village at Mill Creek

From March 16 to May 17, 2020, non-urgent surgeries — surgeries that have a target wait time of greater than six weeks — were postponed as part of the initial COVID-19 pandemic response. Urgent and emergency surgeries continued to be performed during this period.

On May 7, health authorities began calling all patients waiting for surgery to confirm that they were ready, willing and able to proceed with their surgery in a COVID-19 environment. To date, 107,789 patients have been contacted about their surgery.

Five of the six health authorities have completed all their calls to patients on the waitlist prior to May 7, 2020, with Island Health expecting to complete this work in the coming weeks.

Health authorities resumed non-urgent surgeries on May 18 and have completed a combined total of 159,634 surgeries as of Nov. 8, 2020. Of these, 124,078 were urgent and non-urgent scheduled surgeries, and 35,556 were unscheduled or emergency surgeries.

Total surgeries completed by health authority since May 18:

• 43,794 in Fraser Health;
• 29,204 in Interior Health;
• 9,277 in Northern Health;
• 37,573 in Vancouver Coastal Health;
• 33,312 in Vancouver Island Health; and
• 6,474 in the Provincial Health Services Authority.

Weekly total surgeries completed from Oct. 26 to Nov. 1:

Last week, health authorities reported 6,894 surgeries completed. Health authorities have now verified their data and the total number of surgeries completed was 7,179.

Weekly total surgeries completed from Nov. 2 to 8:

This week, health authorities completed 6,978 surgeries.

Snapshot of progress:

Health authorities continue to work through the significant number of interested contact-tracing job candidates. It is expected that these will be reflected in hiring numbers next week. Across all health authority roles:

• 299 candidates are in the interview stage
• 77 candidates are in the offer process

There also continues to be interest in the contact-tracing positions, primarily through health authority mechanisms.

In total:

• 8,748 individuals have expressed interest in total, with 2,121 individuals expressing interest to Health Match BC (HMBC) and 6,627 expressing interest directly to health authorities. 
  • In the past week, 327 people have expressed interest.
• HMBC has referred 1,341 individuals to regional health authorities and the Provincial Health Services Authority as appropriate.
  • In the past week, 56 positions have been filled across all health authorities.
• To date, there have been 636 total hires. This surpasses the initial target (500 first announced in August) and represents 95.3% of the increased target of 608 positions (updated in September).
• In the past week, several health authorities have received approval to increase the total number of contact tracers to approximately 800 positions.
• In addition, the ministry has provided approval to the First Nations Health Authority to hire 76 community health representative positions to support culturally safe contact-tracing efforts within First Nations communities.