Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry presented grave new numbers in terms of COVID-19 death totals on Thursday.
There have been 28 new deaths since the last provincial update on Wednesday, a new record, adding on to the climbing numbers that BC has seen in the last month.
Within this last month, there have been 303 deaths due to the coronavirus. In the first ten days of December alone, there have been a total of 146. In total throughout the pandemic, BC has had 587.
Almost all deaths have been among elders, living in long-term care facilities. All but two of the 28 announced on Thursday were in these homes.
“These are family, these are friends, people who have had interesting and challenging lives, though have had to spend their last ten months like us dealing with this pandemic,” said Dr. Henry.
She also announced a total of 723 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, of which 82 were in the Interior.
56 active outbreaks remain in long-term care homes throughout BC.
Another new record was also set on Thursday: 83 people are in intensive care units in hospitals across the province.
Dr. Henry also reiterated that the start of immunization will be happening very soon, and that the first people in the province will have the vaccine by this time next week.
Though, despite a breakthrough, she added that “We are not yet through this storm.”
“It is still a long way to go before our communities are all safe from this virus.”
Dr. Henry expects the vast majority of the province to have access to the vaccine in the next few months.
“For every person that gets that vaccine, we will all be a little safer.”
