B.C. records 131 new COVID-19 cases over three days, as active cases surge past 400

Health officials reported 131 new cases of COVID-19 in B.C. over the past three days and no new deaths.

There were 50 cases from Friday to Saturday, 37 cases Saturday to Sunday, and 44 from Sunday to Monday.

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The number of active cases in the province jumped from 386 on Friday to 445, an increase of just over 15 per cent.

There are 4,065 confirmed cases of the disease in B.C. Of those, 3,425 patients have fully recovered, or about 84 per cent.

B.C.’s death toll from COVID-19 remains at 195 as the province has not recorded a death related to the virus since July 31.

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Nine COVID-19 patients are in hospital, a decrease of two since Friday. Three of those patients are in intensive care, a decrease of one.

The province says 1,765 people are in self-isolation.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said the vast majority of people who tested positive for the virus over the past three days were already in self-isolation after consulting public health officials.

“That means that as they developed their illness, they were isolated and they no longer exposed others, breaking those chains of transmission,” she said.

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“This is incredibly important as this is how we know we can manage with the cases that we’re seeing here in British Columbia.”

While contact tracing remains an invaluable tool, Henry said B.C. residents must do their best to collectively stop exposure events from happening.

Social gatherings and private parties remain a primary concern.

“This is because people are often inside and in close contact with crowds of people that they don’t know for several hours,” she said.

Some large parties have been broken up and fines have been levied, Henry added.

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With the Vancouver Canucks set to play their first NHL post-season series since 2015, she reminded the public that bars and restaurants have restrictions in place, and hockey fans should take advantage of watching the team play in August.

“This is the year where we can celebrate the Canucks with our close friends or outside on a patio with a small group, and we can do that in broad places all over the province rather than just small, crowded places here and there.”

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Health officials have repeatedly warned B.C. residents as more COVID-19 cases emerge from large social gatherings.

Three Vancouver police officers and two Vancouver police patrols are in isolation after breaking up an out-of-control party with more than 100 people attending, Ralph Kaisers, president of the Vancouver Police Union, said on social media on Friday.

Kaisers told Global News the party took place in an apartment in downtown Vancouver in late July.

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Between 16 to 20 officers are in self-isolation as a result, Kaisers said.

In addition, hundreds of people are now self-isolating following a house party in North Vancouver.

“The numbers of contacts related to that are in the 400 range,” Henry said on Thursday.

People under the age of 40 make up a disproportionately large number of coronavirus cases in the Okanagan and throughout the wider Interior Health region, according to statistics from the BC Centre for Disease Control.

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Forty-seven per cent of diagnosed cases in the Interior Health region involve people aged 20 to 40, compared to a provincial average of 34 per cent for the same age demographic.

The rise in coronavirus cases among young people is related to private parties in and around Kelowna, B.C., over the Canada Day long weekend, health officials have said.

— With files from Amy Judd and Shelby Thom