Six British Columbians, all elderly, have died from COVID-19 since Friday, said provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.
The spike in deaths includes one death in June but which only recently was confirmed to be a result of the COVID-19 virus, Henry added in a July 6 briefing.
"To lose six people, all in long-term care, over the last three days is a source of enormous grief," said BC Health Minister Adrian Dix, also at the briefing.
The public health office, health authorities and long-term care operators have been relaxing the restrictions on visitations in long-term care homes. Given the recent spike in deaths, Henry was asked if the deaths over the weekend did not raise concerns about relaxing the restrictions on visiting elderly family members in care homes.
She conceded that, once the virus is in a care home, the potential for it to kill elderly people is high.
"The good news is that we have reduced the amount of transmission in our community so much so that we have very few people in hospital," said Henry. "We have very few people who are transmitting in our community, and that's why we feel we're at that balance where we need to allow more people to go into long-term care [to visit]."
There are currently three long-term care and one acute-care facilities in B.C. with active cases of COVID-19. Meanwhile there are currently 16 people in acute care in hospital with four in intensive care.
There have been no new outbreaks in B.C. since Friday, and with the 31 new confirmed cases since July 3 the total number of cases is now 2,978. Of that number, 2,629 people have recovered, leaving 166 active cases in B.C.
Responding to a spike in cases in Seattle, and the question of whether public demonstrations may have caused the uptick, Henry was asked whether any cases in B.C. have been traced to large anti-racism public protests that took place in Vancouver in June. She said it appears those large gatherings did not result in any spread of the virus.
"Currently, we do not have any cases that have been associated with the protests that took place," Henry said. "In talking with my colleagues in the U.S., they also have not seen surges related to those activities."
The fact the protests were held outside may be one of the factors that limited the potential spread of the virus.
Here are today’s COVID-19 numbers for Monday, July 6, with numbers from Friday July 3, the last reporting period, in brackets:
New cases: 31 (13)
Total: 2,978 (2,947)
Active cases: 166 (162)
Recovered: 2,629 (2,608)
Hospitalized: 16 (19)
Intensive care: 4 (2)
Deaths: 183 (177)
Confirmed cases by region:
Vancouver Coastal Health:1,008
Fraser Health: 1,570
Island Health:132
Interior Health:203
Northern Health: 65
