New COVID-19 cases in Burnaby took a huge jump during the last reporting period, but remaining well above the 200-case mark for a fourth consecutive week, according to the latest data from the BC Centre for Disease Control.
In an update posted to the BCCDC website, Burnaby saw 246 new coronavirus cases from March 7 to 13, up from 203 new cases from Feb. 28 to March 6. That’s down from 270 new coronavirus cases from Feb. 21 to 27 but up slightly from the 243 cases from Feb. 14 to 20.
And it’s well above the 197 new coronavirus cases from Feb. 7 to 13, which was a dramatic spike from the period of Jan. 31 to Feb. 6, in which Burnaby had 121 new coronavirus cases. From Jan. 24 to 30, Burnaby had 124 new coronavirus cases. Those two weeks were both down from Jan. 17 to 23, when Burnaby had 155 new coronavirus cases.
The most cases Burnaby has seen in one week was 341 from Dec. 6-12.
The number of people actively battling what the province calls "variants of concern" has risen dramatically since the start of March, when there were 158 known cases.
A lab sequencing issue meant no new variant data was available on March 17, but the B.C. government's data from yesterday shows that the total number of these cases has risen more than 530%, to 996, compared with March 1.
So far in B.C., none of the people infected with a mutant strain of the virus has died, while 130 people are actively battling infections, and 886 people are considered recovered because they have had two negative tests.
The B.1.1.7 variant, first discovered in the U.K. is the most widely spread variant in the province, as there are 921 cases. The remaining variants include 41 cases of the B.1.351 strain first discovered in South Africa, and 34 cases of the P.1. variant first discovered in Brazil.
B.C. health officials who have found variant cases did so by retesting samples previously reported as being the main COVID-19 strain. Sometimes the retesting of previously tested samples have gone back a few months, provincial health officer Bonnie Henry said earlier this week.
The spread of all strains of COVID-19 has shown to be challenging to quell.
New infections have continued to be around 500 per day. Between March 16 and March 17, health officials found 498 new cases, for a total of 89,427 since the first case was discovered in late January, 2020. Of those, 83,083 have recovered.
From Jan. 10 to 16, there were 111 new coronavirus cases in Burnaby. There were 152 new cases from Jan. 3-9. There were 169 cases from Dec. 27-Jan. 3 – which was a large drop from Dec. 20 to 26, when there were 214 new cases in Burnaby – a drop from the 287 new cases from Dec. 13-19 and 341 cases from Dec. 6-12.
While cases dropped as December went on, the month was also Burnaby’s worst with 1,139 new cases, compared with the 1,081 new cases during November. Burnaby had just 287 new cases in all of October and 238 cases in September.
According to the BCCDC, Burnaby had 3,077 COVID-19 cases between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2020.
