Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry provided a data-driven update on the COVID-19 pandemic through B.C. on Thursday. (BC Government Flickr)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

NEW DATA

Young adults driving recent COVID case spike, no new infections on Vancouver Island

Aug 13, 2020 | 4:16 PM

NANAIMO — The Island Health region held firm on Thursday with no increase to the number of COVID-19 cases, but 78 new cases were reported province-wide.

The number of active cases rose to 578, with three in the Island Health region currently recovering at home. As of Thursday, 4,274 positive COVID-19 tests had been recorded in British Columbia since the start of the pandemic with just 150 within Island Health.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry provided another epidemiological update featuring a breakdown of past cases by age group. The data showed a significant jump in the number of cases of people aged 20 to 40.

Data showing the breakdown of case counts by age group and their proportion to the B.C. population. (BC Government)

“That’s reflected in the some of the numbers we’re seeing as well as the discussion we’ve had over the last few weeks of exposure events, particularly social events, parties, get togethers where young people are coming together and the virus is being spread,” Dr. Henry said.

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The data showed young children and teenagers have largely escaped infection to date in the province.

Just six per cent of COVID-19 cases were in youth 19-years-old or younger, a segment which makes up 19 per cent of the provincial population.

Dr. Henry said the province is clearly on an upwards trajectory with higher daily case counts for the past two weeks, including the third highest single-day increase on Wednesday when 85 new cases were confirmed.

A graph showing the volume of cases over time, split into age groups. The darker purple line on the right represents those aged 20-29 years old. The blue-green line underneath is 30-39 year olds with confirmed positive tests. (BC Government)

Data from the province showed current restrictions have kept society and the economy at approximately 70 per cent of pre-COVID levels.

At that rate, case counts would continue to slowly increase while a drop to 50 per cent of normal would see the number of cases drop within two weeks.

Dr. Henry added the layers of protection in place continue to largely control the virus in British Columbia, including contact tracing.

“Complete contact tracing helps ensure we can continue with our restart, our surgeries, visits to long term care, people getting back to work and opening our schools if we have our strong public health system in place as well,” Dr. Henry said.

The province announced around 500 new professionals will join public health’s contact tracing team in September in a bid to better manage community spread of the virus.

Dr. Henry also updated testing for COVID-19, with over 280,000 tests completed in B.C. as of Aug. 7.

The province said increased testing capacity is being implemented for the fall, with a goal of 20,000 tests per day.

The mean turnaround time for a test diagnosis is 22.2 hours through B.C.

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