B.C. health officials announced 519 new cases of COVID-19 and 12 deaths via the B.C. Centre for Disease Control’s online dashboard Wednesday.
There are 4,810 active cases in the province. There are 360 people in hospital, and 76 in intensive care.
A total of 1,031 people have died from COVID-19.
Interior Health announced a new COVID-19 outbreak at Cariboo Memorial Hospital in Williams Lake.
Health-care professionals in B.C. continued their calls this week for increased rapid testing for COVID-19. A pilot project run by Fraser Health suggested Wednesday that testing patients for COVID-19 before their scheduled surgery and transfer to wards from emergency departments could reduce hospital outbreaks in B.C.
During the pilot, 65 of 5,681 patients who were booked for surgery tested positive for the coronavirus but had no symptoms and would not have warranted a test based on a screening questionnaire.
Meanwhile, an emergency room doctor in Whistler, B.C., called on the government to enact an inter-provincial travel ban after seeing a concerning number of tourists from hard-hit provinces like Ontario and Quebec over the holidays.
A public health advisory in place across B.C. since Nov. 19 cautions against all non-essential travel, but an advisory does not have the legal power of a public health order.
B.C.’s health restrictions banning gatherings with people outside of one’s immediate household, among other things, remains in effect until midnight on Feb. 5.
