64 new cases of COVID-19 in Northern Health ; previous reporting issues in the North explained

Northern Health accounted for 64 of the total of  the 761 new cases of COVID-19 identified in BC.

The North’s total case count has reached 2,338, meanwhile, the provincial total is 56,015 with 6,349 active cases across the province.

372 people are fighting the virus in the hospital; 74 of whom are in ICU.

There are 438 active cases in the North, 38 people are in hospital; 16 of them are in ICU.

Provincial Health Officials addressed the ongoing issues with relaying COVID-19 case count information in Northern Health.

“The system being used in the North has been adapting to try and more efficiently get the data,” said Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry,” but unfortunately it was duplicating some of the cases and it took some time to figure out why it was duplicating some reports and not others.”

She explained that there was a time in late November and early December where there were some real challenges with the new system in the North.

Henry explained that since there is no single information process in BC that translates information between laboratories, public health, the BCCDC database, there have been some delays, reporting errors, miscounting and overcounting in the past.

Health officials have now implemented a new case reporting system across BC that will get daily case counts directly from the lab system.

“What we’re doing will automate identification from the laboratory system which will address some technical issues we get when a health authorities system is down, which should mean more timely reporting when we get lab results,” she added.

There have been 32 total deaths in the North and with 1,859 people recovered in the region, the North’s recovery rate is 80%.

So far, 41,064 people have received a COVID-19 vaccination in the province.

8 more people have died in the province, BC’s death toll has reached 970 while the provincial recovery rate is 84%.

One more health care outbreak was identified in a care home in the Island health authority, there are 51 active outbreaks in  BC’s health care system.

Additionally, BC Health Officials are closely monitoring the COVID-19 UK variant that was identified in the Island Health Authority in December.

Officials have been researching and studying genome sequences in an attempt to identify any new cases of the variant, but so far there has just been the one identified in BC.

BREAKDOWN:

Northern Health: +64 (Total 2,338)

Interior Health:  +96 (Total 4,406)

Vancouver Coastal Health: +94 (Total 12,886)

Fraser Health:+484 (Total 34,841)

Island Health: +23 (Total 1,052)