Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.

Image Credit: Flickr/Province of B.C.

There were 85 new cases of COVID-19 in B.C. over the last 24 hours, marking the third-highest single-day jump since the pandemic began.

Minister of Health Adrian Dix and Dr. Bonnie Henry, released a joint statement today, Aug. 12, noting that there are now 4,196 cases in the province.

As of today, there are 531 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, while 3,469 people who tested positive have recovered. Eight people are hospitalized with COVID-19, and five of them are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation.

"The pandemic is an unprecedented challenge for our province. And today we are reporting the third-highest number of new cases we have seen in a day since the pandemic began,” Dr. Henry and Dix said in the statement.

“The majority of these cases are young people in the Lower Mainland and their exposures have been at events in the community. The cases we are seeing today reflect exposures from a week to 10 days ago. A significant number of cases are also linked to travel from out of province.”

They advised that British Columbians need to refocus on measures to flatten the curve of infection and protect others as we help our province recover.

"We are watching the cases climb, which is concerning. We need everyone to recommit to using the skills we've learned. Keep gatherings small, have a designated 'contact keeper,' limit time with others, maintain physical distance and always stay home if you're feeling unwell,” Dix and Dr. Henry said.

"We must all keep working together to protect people's health, homes and livelihoods, and to get our province back on track. We are all in this together, so let's continue holding the line."

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 1,273 cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 2,203 in the Fraser Health region, 150 in the Island Health region, 394 in the Interior Health region, 104 in the Northern Health region and 72 cases of people who reside outside of Canada.

There has been one new COVID-19 related death, for a total of 196 deaths in British Columbia. We offer our condolences to everyone who has lost their loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic.

There have been no new health-care facility outbreaks in the region. In total, seven long-term care or assisted-living facilities and one acute-care facility have active outbreaks.

There are no new community outbreaks. However, there continue to be community exposure events everywhere in the province and on flights into and out of British Columbia.

Alerts are posted on the BC Centre for Disease Control's website, as well as on health authorities' websites, providing details on where the potential exposure occurred and what actions to take - whether you need to immediately self-isolate or monitor for symptoms.

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