Dr. Bonnie Henry announced a record 1,293 new cases of COVID-19 across B.C. as variants of concern continue to drive many of the new infections. (BC Government)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

VOC DATA

B.C. pandemic ‘driven by our social interactions’ as province posts record daily increase

Apr 8, 2021 | 3:07 PM

NANAIMO — International variants and social gatherings continue to cause COVID-19 cases to surge in all areas of the province.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry on Thursday, April 8 confirmed 1,293 cases across British Columbia, a new record for a single reporting period.

Island Health confirmed 68 cases for the second straight day with the number of active cases rising above 500, to 504, for the first time. Of the active cases in the health authority, 201 are in the central Island region with 271 to the south and 32 in the north.

Active cases in B.C. jumped to 9,184 including 336 people in hospital with 101 of those patients in ICU. Thursday marked the second day with more than 100 people in the ICU.

Two people died due to COVID-19 in the last 24 hours.

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Dr. Henry said new, more transmissible COVID-19 variants have overtaken previous strains.

“We’re starting to see a lot of the B.1.1.7 (UK) strain and that is not unexpected. By the time we recognized this was a strain that has increased transmissibility, it had already been introduced in British Columbia and we were able to detect it from very early on.”

Similar strains from South Africa and Brazil (P.1) are also widespread in B.C. with the Brazilian variant more prevalent among younger people.

Public health data showed 40 per cent of all cases in people aged 20-29 and another 22 per cent in those aged 30-39 were the P.1 variant.

Public health continues to monitor the impacts of the variants with a focus on hospitalizations.

British Columbia’s hospitalization rate between March 1 to 26 was 4.2 per cent. Around four per cent of cases not involving variants required hospitalization as did 4.3 per cent of people diagnosed with the P.1 variant.

The U.K. variant saw the sharpest jump, from the average to 5.2 per cent of confirmed cases requiring hospitalization.

Dr. Henry said public health’s strategy will shift and the province will no longer do detailed testing for variants, instead assuming a confirmed case is a mutated strain.

Testing capacity will instead turn towards understanding new trends across the province.

“(It) help us understand new transmission chains, clusters or outbreaks and understand how we can best manage those outbreaks, determine the proportion of travellers who have variants of concern and monitor for things that make a difference in how we’re managing our pandemic in BC.”

Areas under monitoring include people who become re-infected with COVID-19, those who get the virus after immunization and what Dr. Henry called ‘escape variants’ who may be resistant to vaccine.

Despite a record rise in cases in all areas of the province, public health is staying the course with its circuit breaker.

Dr. Henry again said it was time to double down and limit social interactions which have driven the rise in infections over recent weeks.

“Much of it is being driven by our social interactions and amplified in places like workplaces. These gatherings with different people in different places on different days are fueling the spread of the virus that we’re seeing. These variants of concern are making that, that much more easy.”

To combat workplace spread, Dr. Henry announced a new order combining the resources of Worksafe BC with public health.

If a workplace confirms three or more cases in a short time, public health will have the authority to shut down the site until further investigation can take place.

Exceptions will be made for essential services such as police/fire/ambulance, grocery stores and pharmacies.

British Columbia will deliver its 1,000,000th dose of vaccine on Friday, April 9 with those aged 65 or older now eligible to book appointments on the phone or through the government’s website.

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