New COVID-19 cases in Burnaby dropped after seeing its worst week every earlier in December.
The latest data from the BC Centre for Disease Control show that from Dec. 13-19, Burnaby had 287 new cases.
That’s down from the 341 cases from Dec. 6-12, but still more than the period of Nov. 29-Dec. 5, when Burnaby had 238 cases, which is the exact same number Burnaby had for the entire month of September, according to the BCCDC.
Part of the reason for cases escalating recently has been an outbreak at Burnaby Hospital. One Burnaby care home has also seen a massive outbreak. AgeCare Harmony Court at 7197 Canada Way has had more than cases and at least 13 deaths. As students entered the Christmas break, at least 20 Burnaby schools had seen recent exposure notices.
The strict health orders issued in B.C. in November appear to have successfully bent the COVID-19 curve in the province, B.C. Health Officer Bonnie Henry said Wednesday.
Numbers continue to rise, however. For the last 24 hours, B.C. recorded 518 new cases of COVID-19, with more than half again coming from the Fraser Health region (332). Henry said there have been another 19 deaths, bringing the death count up to 796.
According to what Henry presented on the province’s COVID trajectory for December, the infection contact rate index has now fallen below 1 – meaning each infected person is in turn infecting one person or fewer.
That number, Henry said, is the difference between the COVID curve skyrocketing versus plateauing and falling over the next month.
“That’s where we are now, which means what we are doing is working,” Henry said of the stricter restrictions introduced in November. “But we cannot let up... It doesn’t mean we are out of the woods.
“We have bent our curve slightly. But we need to be cautious, because it would not take much to get us back into the danger zone.”
New cases of COVID-19 skyrocketed in Burnaby in November with 1,081.
That’s a huge jump from the 287 cases Burnaby had in all of October and 238 cases in September.
According to the BCCDC, Burnaby has now seen 1,938 COVID-19 cases between Jan. 1 and Nov. 30, 2020.
- With files from Chuck Chiang, Glacier Media
