B.C. reports 765 new COVID-19 cases, one new death

Editor’s note: B.C. health officials incorrectly reported the number of new COVID-19 cases on Thurs, Nov. 19 due to a technical error. The numbers below have since been corrected. For more COVID-19 data, go to the BC Centre for Disease Control website.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry reported 765 new cases of COVID-19 in B.C. on Thursday, alongside sweeping new orders aimed at controlling the second wave of the global pandemic.

The majority of the new cases were once again in the Fraser Health region (537) and Vancouver Coastal Health region (178).

There were 28 cases in the Interior Health region, 12 on Vancouver Island and 11 in the Northern Health region.

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Henry’s orders included a mandatory mask mandate in indoor public spaces, the extension of Lower Mainland restrictions on social gatherings to the entire province, and a suspension on in-person religious services.

“We need to do more. We need to keep our essential activities open and operating safely, we need to keep our schools open and operating safely, and our workplaces that can be safely open, open. And we need to relieve the stress on our health-care system, right now,” she said.

“We need to go back to what we were doing in April and May and March when we had our pandemic bubble.”

The province recorded one death overnight, also a significant drop after two days of double-digit fatalities.

Several other key metrics continued to move in the wrong direction, however.

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Hospitalizations climbed again, reaching a new record of 217. Another 59 people remained in critical or intensive care.

Active cases also reached a new all-time high of 6,929.

And the number of people isolating, after peaking last Friday and dropping for nearly a week, ticked upward again to 9,929.

About 69 per cent of B.C.’s total 24,960 cases have recovered.