There is a new case of COVID-19 on Vancouver Island.
On Tuesday afternoon provincial health officials announced a total of 12 new COVID-19 cases in British Columbia and that one of those new cases is within the Island Health region. B.C. officials also reported no new deaths from the virus today.
One of the new cases is an epidemiologically linked case, but officials did not disclose its location.
The new case brings the total number of COVID-19 cases in the Island Health region to 133 while the provincial total climbs to 2,990. B.C.’s death toll, however, remains at 183.
The last time a new case was reported on Vancouver Island was July 2, when officials reported just one new case of the virus.
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Health officials did not provide a live update today but instead issued a statement, which also said there were 162 active COVID-19 cases in British Columbia and 16 people in hospital, four of whom are in ICU.
“It is important to remember that the more people you see and the more places you go, the higher the likelihood is that you’ll come into contact with someone with COVID-19,” the province said in a statement. “To protect yourself, the best things you can do are to keep the number of people you see to a minimum and as much as possible, maintain a safe distance from others and use a mask when that is challenging.
Since the pandemic began, there have been 1,576 cases of COVID-19 reported in the Fraser Health region, 1,013 cases in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 203 in the Interior Health region, 133 in the Island Health region and 65 in the Northern Health region.
Unlike other Canadian provinces and U.S. states, British Columbia does not identify the municipality or regional district where new cases are reported. Instead, B.C. officials identify where new cases are by health authority region.
Island Heath covers an area that includes all of Vancouver Island and sections of mostly unpopulated land north of the Sunshine Coast.
Nationwide, a total of 106,167 cases of COVID-19 have been recorded while 8,711 have died in Canada from the virus. Quebec, leads the country with 55,997 cases reported, followed by Ontario at 36,060 and Alberta, which has recorded 8,436 cases according to Health Canada.
The United States, meanwhile, has reported 2.87 million cases of COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization.
Neighbouring Washington state has reported a total of 37,420 cases, an increase of 1,522 from yesterday, according to the latest data available on its health department website. Meanwhile, Idaho has reported 8,539 total cases, Montana has reported 1,327 cases and Alaksa has reported 1,184 cases. California, the U.S.’s most populous state, recorded 6,090 new cases today, bringing their overall total to 277,774.
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Nicholas Pescod
