Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry listens to a question from a reporter at a news conference in Victoria, Nov. 24, 2020.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED / Province of B.C.
November 30, 2020 - 3:38 PM
B.C.'s COVID-19 death toll grew by a record-breaking 46 since Friday, painting a stark picture of how the province's pandemic fight is going.
"Each of these (were) husbands, wives, sons, daughters, grandparents — to all of who lost a loved one this weekend, we all feel your loss and we mourn with you," provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said today, Nov. 30.
"Eighty per cent of these people were people who have lived in long-term care, and it reflects right now the challenges that we have been dealing with, with this virus in our communities. And the fact that it can cause such devastation when it gets into our care homes, and the impact it has on seniors, and elders who are so important to our history, our families and our communities."
The oldest person to die was 103 years old "and when you think what that person has gone through," Dr. Henry said, clearly emotional about the losses of the weekend.
Between Friday and Saturday there were an additional 750 cases of COVID-19, from Saturday to Sunday there were 731 cases, and from Sunday to today 596 new cases.
Also, due to challenges with the lab reporting and reconciliation of the data last week in Fraser Health, an additional 277 historical cases were added to the database between Nov. 18 and 26. That raises the total number of cases to 2,364 since Friday and 33,238 since the start of the pandemic.
Given the staggering new numbers, Dr. Henry reiterated her call for people to act with care to reduce the spread of the disease.
"Despite how difficult it is, and we know how challenging it has been in these last few weeks, I am heartened immensely that most people in B.C. are doing the right thing and I'm grateful for that," she said.
She added that acting as a responsible citizen is our duty to our fellow citizens. It is how we show we care.
"That is how we are going to make it through this pandemic. We know that COVID-19 is a serious life-threatening illness with severe consequences for many," she said. "This past weekend, as you know, we have the largest number of people died from COVID-19 in our province. These people have faces, have names, have stories, have families. And while it is the families of those who died who are feeling the most right now, this tragedy is all of our tragedy and we all mourn the loss."
Of all the new cases, there were 371 from the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 1,365 new cases, plus the additional 277 historical cases from the Fraser Health region, 58 people in the Vancouver Island Health region, 212 people in Interior Health region, 73 people additionally in the Northern Health region, and one new case in a person who resides outside of Canada.
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