Burnaby set a new weekly record for COVID-19 cases as part of B.C.’s third wave.
New COVID-19 cases in Burnaby exploded during the last reporting period, with 366 new cases reported from March 28 to April 3, according to data from the BC Centre for Disease Control posted on April 7 (weekly case numbers for individual cities are posted every Wednesday afternoon).
Burnaby has seen cases remain above 200 for seven consecutive weeks.
Burnaby saw 244 new infections between March 21 and 27 – more than the 210 new infections between March 14 and 20, but down slightly from the 246 new coronavirus cases from March 7 to 13. There were 203 new cases from Feb. 28 to March 6, 270 new cases from Feb. 21 to 27 and 243 cases from Feb. 14 to 20.
The previous weekly record for Burnaby was 341 cases from Dec. 6-12, 2020.
The number of British Columbians with serious bouts of COVID-19 continue to rise, with a net total of nine more people admitted to hospitals' intensive care units as of Wednesday’s numbers, and a record 105 people now in those units battling for their lives.
The number of COVID-19 patients in all units of B.C. hospitals rose by two, to 330 – the highest number since January 18.
New infections continued to be detected at a rate of around 1,000 per day, with health officials confirming 997 new cases.
That pushes the number of people infected with the virus that has spawned a global pandemic to 106.985, with more than 90.3%, or 96,626 people being deemed by the province as having recovered.
Two more people died while infected with COVID-19 as of Wednesday’s update, for a total of 1,491 since the first such death in the province was recorded in March, 2020.
The vast majority of those actively battling infections have been told to self-isolate. The number of active infections rose by 57 overnight, to 8,728, which is the highest total since December 23.
Health officials are closely monitoring a record 14,602 people for symptoms as a result of those individuals having had known contact with identified cases. That number is up by 484 people from yesterday's record high.
Health Minister Adrian Dix and provincial health officer Bonnie Henry said in a joint statement, "We are actively monitoring and screening for all of the virus strains to understand how they may impact us and what additional action may be required to keep our communities safe."
Despite that sentiment, no genetic sequencing for mutant variants was done in the past day. As such, there is no new data, and 266 people continue to fight active mutant-variant infections, according to Dix and Henry.
Health officials provided 34,040 doses of vaccine to 32,010 people in the past day, with 30 people getting needed second doses. In total, officials have provided 946,096 doses to 858,592 people, with 87,504 people getting needed second doses since the first dose was administered in mid-December.
- With files from Glen Korstrom, Glacier Media
