B.C.’s COVID-19 response and latest updates for Sept. 10
B.C. Minister of Health Adrian Dix.
Adrian Dix, Minister of Health, and Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.’s provincial health officer, today (Sept. 10) issued the following joint statement regarding updates on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) response in British Columbia.
Today, we are announcing 139 new cases, for a total of 6,830 cases in British Columbia.
There are 1,412 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, 3,109 people who are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases and 5,190 people who tested positive have recovered.
Currently, 42 individuals are hospitalized with COVID-19, 14 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation.
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 2,343 cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 3,551 in the Fraser Health region, 187 in the Island Health region, 462 in the Interior Health region, 203 in the Northern Health region and 84 cases of people who reside outside of Canada.
There have been no new COVID-19 related deaths, for a total of 213 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 total, 13 long-term care or assisted-living facilities and three acute-care facilities have active outbreaks.
There have been no new community outbreaks, although there continue to be community exposure events.
Alerts are posted on the BC Centre for Disease Control’s (BCCDC) 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 self-isolate or monitor for symptoms.
Living with COVID-19 in our communities means finding the balance of protecting ourselves and those around us, and restarting and keeping going with activities that are safe for our communities.
We have adapted and learned many things to create our new normal, and we’ll continue to learn and adapt as we move forward. We also know what we need to do to keep ourselves and those around us safe, and must now prepare for whatever may lie ahead this fall and winter.
This is our time to be steady in our actions and ready for what lies ahead.
Dr. Bonnie Henry
Today is the start of school for children right across B.C. This can be an exciting and anxious time for many as everyone sets new routines for the school year.
Over the past few weeks, education leaders, teachers and public health experts have created new rules for schools to reduce the risk for transmission of COVID-19 and importantly, allow everyone to get back to in-class learning.
This is the balance that will keep our communities healthy and resilient.
Every day we learn more about COVID-19 – the sources of transmission and the actions to take to protect ourselves. While there are many resources available to guide your actions and decision-making, your first stop should be the BCCDC website, where the latest information is available.
What we do today makes a difference tomorrow and in the weeks ahead. By choosing to wash our hands regularly, keep our social interactions small and with those we know, and always staying home when ill, will ensure we remain strong in B.C.
Some Ontario doctors have started offering a free shot that can protect babies from respiratory syncytial virus while Quebec will begin its immunization program next month.
The new shot called Nirsevimab gives babies antibodies that provide passive immunity to RSV, a major cause of serious lower respiratory tract infections for infants and seniors, which can cause bronchiolitis or pneumonia.
Ontario’s ministry of health says the shot is already available at some doctor’s offices in Ontario with the province’s remaining supply set to arrive by the end of the month.
Quebec will begin administering the shots on Nov. 4 to babies born in hospitals and delivery centers.
Parents in Quebec with babies under six months or those who are older but more vulnerable to infection can also book immunization appointments online.
The injection will be available in Nunavut and Yukon this fall and winter, though administration start dates have not yet been announced.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
-With files from Nicole Ireland
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Polio cases are rising ahead of a new vaccination campaign in Pakistan, where violence targeting health workers and the police protecting them has hampered years of efforts toward making the country polio-free.
Since January, health officials have confirmed 39 new polio cases in Pakistan, compared to only six last year, said Anwarul Haq of the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication.
The new nationwide drive starts Oct. 28 with the aim to vaccinate at least 32 million children. “The whole purpose of these campaigns is to achieve the target of making Pakistan a polio-free state,” he said.
Pakistan regularly launches campaigns against polio despite attacks on the workers and police assigned to the inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Most of the new polio cases were reported in the southwestern Balochistan and southern Sindh province, following by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and eastern Punjab province.
The locations are worrying authorities since previous cases were from the restive northwest bordering Afghanistan, where the Taliban government in September suddenly stopped a door-to-door vaccination campaign.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. Authorities in Pakistan have said that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions beyond the Afghan border, as people from both sides frequently travel to each other’s country.
The World Health Organization has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023. Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy this June for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, according to WHO.
Health officials in Pakistan say they want the both sides to conduct anti-polio drives simultaneously.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter methods like condoms, the “morning after” pill and birth control pills for free under a new rule the White House proposed on Monday.
Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or “morning after” pills from local storefronts without a prescription.
The proposal comes days before Election Day, as Vice President Kamala Harris affixes her presidential campaign to a promise of expanding women’s health care access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to undo nationwide abortion rights two years ago. Harris has sought to craft a distinct contrast from her Republican challenger, Donald Trump, who appointed some of the judges who issued that ruling.
“The proposed rule we announce today would expand access to birth control at no additional cost for millions of consumers,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Bottom line: women should have control over their personal health care decisions. And issuers and providers have an obligation to comply with the law.”
The emergency contraceptives that people on private insurance would be able to access without costs include levonorgestrel, a pill that needs to be taken immediately after sex to prevent pregnancy and is more commonly known by the brand name “Plan B.”
Without a doctor’s prescription, women may pay as much as $50 for a pack of the pills. And women who delay buying the medication in order to get a doctor’s prescription could jeopardize the pill’s effectiveness, since it is most likely to prevent a pregnancy within 72 hours after sex.
If implemented, the new rule would also require insurers to fully bear the cost of the once-a-day Opill, a new over-the-counter birth control pill that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last year. A one-month supply of the pills costs $20.
Federal mandates for private health insurance to cover contraceptive care were first introduced with the Affordable Care Act, which required plans to pick up the cost of FDA-approved birth control that had been prescribed by a doctor as a preventative service.
The proposed rule would not impact those on Medicaid, the insurance program for the poorest Americans. States are largely left to design their own rules around Medicaid coverage for contraception, and few cover over-the-counter methods like Plan B or condoms.
