There have been 102 cases of COVID-19 since Friday’s update according to BC Health officials, for 3,300 provincewide.
Northern Health has seen one new infection, totaling 69 overall, after recording three last week.
“Today, we are providing case updates for three 24-hour reporting periods. In the first reporting period from July 17 to July 18, we had 51 new cases. From July 18 to July 19, we had 19 new cases, and in the last 24 hours, we have had a further 32 new cases,” said Provincial Health Officer Doctor Bonnie Henry.
253 cases are active, of those, sixteen are in hospital and four in ICU.
There have been no new deaths over the weekend, with 189 people succumbing to the virus since the onset of the pandemic.
Doctor Henry says a ‘good portion’ of the new cases are associated with parties in the Kelowna area.
She calls the uptick in cases ‘concerning’, saying BC is at risk of exponential growth if the number of unsafe contacts continues to increase.
“The infection rate for new cases is increasing above one to one, and we are also seeing an uptick in our case curve. This tells us that we are on edge of increasing our social interactions too much and are at risk of a rebound. We need to bend our curve back down to where it belongs,” Doctor Henry added.
Site C remains at one test positive case, though as of this morning, 15 people are in isolation.
“There are several community exposure events. Public health teams are actively contact tracing and requesting the assistance of anyone who may have been exposed to monitor themselves closely and follow public health guidance,” Doctor Henry added.
An early snapshot of the ‘Your story, our future’ survey has also been released.
“The preliminary survey results show that almost half of British Columbians (47%) have experienced worsening mental health as a result of the pandemic. Many have also faced additional economic burden and the stress that comes with that,” She said.
“Notably, those aged 18 to 29 have experienced greater economic and mental health impact than the general population.”