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New COVID-19 cases climb in B.C. while deaths decline

In terms of daily new COVID-19 cases, B.C. was pretty much back in July to where it was in late March and early April, according to BC Centre for Disease Control data.
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In terms of daily new COVID-19 cases, B.C. was pretty much back in July to where it was in late March and early April, according to BC Centre for Disease Control data.

On the other hand, testing was also up in July, and the relatively low hospitalizations and deaths in recent days suggest that a lot of the newer cases are among young people, who may not even get sick from the virus or who may escape with non-life threatening illness.

Although B.C. marked 146 new cases over a four-day period, between July 31 and August 4, there were no deaths from COVID-19 in that period and only eight people were in hospital and four in intensive care.

In a joint statement Wednesday, public health officer Bonnie Henry and B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix said there have been 47 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 since Tuesday, but no deaths.

It has been nearly a week now since any deaths from COVID-19 have been reported in B.C. There are currently nine people in hospital and six in intensive care.

At the beginning of April, by contrast, there were more than 140 people in hospital and more than 60 in intensive care.

Dix and Henry said there have been no new outbreaks at long term care facilities or community outbreaks.

"However, there continues to be community exposure events throughout the province and on flights into and out of British Columbia," they said.

There are currently three long-term care facilities with active cases of COVID-19 -- Dania Home, Maple Ridge Seniors Village and Holy Family Hospital.

In May, new daily cases had fallen for about a week into the single digits. But as restrictions on travel and work began to lift, daily case counts began ticking up again, though the number of people seriously ill and requiring treatment in hospital has been falling.

Here are today’s COVID-19 numbers for Wednesday, August 5, with numbers from August 4 (a four-day reporting period) in brackets:
New cases: 47 (146)
Total: 3,834 (3,787)
Active cases: 351 (319)
Recovered: 3,288 (3,273)
Hospitalized: 9 (8)
Intensive care: 6 (4)
Deaths: 195 (195)
Confirmed cases by region:
Vancouver Coastal Health: 1,132
Fraser Health: 2,015
Island Health:146
Interior Health: 384
Northern Health: 91

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