The COVID-19 pandemic continues to deepen its grip on British Columbians, according to new data that shows record totals in various metrics.
There were a record 594 people identified with COVID-19 in the past day, while 536 people were detected as having the virus between Nov. 10 and Nov. 11.
Provincial health officer Bonnie Henry expressed concern about the rapid rise in cases.
"Our cases per day have doubled in the past few weeks, every 13 days," she said.
A record 5,793 people are battling active infections. The number of people battling active infections has been skyrocketing, as it is up more than 70% from the 3,389 people fighting COVID-19 one week ago.
Four more people have died from COVID-19-related illness, pushing the province's death toll from the virus that has caused a global pandemic to 288.
A record 155 people are in hospital, with 44 of those people in intensive care units. Health Minister Adrian Dix reiterated that the province's healthcare system has much more capacity to handle a further rise in hospitalizations.
Henry also offered a look at the COVID-19 monthly update, available here on the BCCDC website.
Healthcare professionals conducted 12,442 tests in the past 24 hours, meaning that the positive-test rate was nearly 4.8% – higher than Henry has said she would like, but far below where it has been in recent days.
"We are in a challenging time, perhaps the most challenging time of this pandemic," Henry said.
"This is not an easy time for any of us, but we will get through this."
The Fraser Health region continues to be the source for the most new infections.
Henry revealed on November 12 data for the past two days, given that yesterday was Remembrance Day, and there was no data release.
During that two-day span, there were 1,130 new infections, including:
• 249 in Vancouver Coastal Health;
• 808 in Fraser Health;
• 16 in Island Health;
• 34 in Interior Health;
• 23 in Northern Health.
Of the 20,368 people who have contracted COVID-19 since the first case in B.C. was discovered in late January, 14,089 have recovered.
