COVID-19 update for June 29: Third wave would have killed more people without vaccines: Tam | B.C. set to announce third phase of restart plan | Death toll higher outside long term care, says study – Vancouver Sun
Here’s your daily update with everything you need to know on the novel coronavirus situation in B.C.
Author of the article:
Cheryl Chan, Scott Brown, David Carrigg
Publishing date:
Jun 29, 2021 • 1 hour ago • 8 minute read • 6 Comments
The ultrastructural morphology exhibited by the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), first detected in Wuhan, China, is seen in an illustration released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. January 29, 2020. Photo by Handout /via REUTERS
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Here’s your daily update with everything you need to know on the novel coronavirus situation in B.C. for June 29, 2021.
We’ll provide summaries of what’s going on in B.C. right here so you can get the latest news at a glance. This page will be updated regularly throughout the day, with developments added as they happen.
Check back here for more updates throughout the day. You can also get the latest COVID-19 news delivered to your inbox weeknights at 7 p.m. by subscribing to our newsletter here.
B.C.’S COVID-19 CASE NUMBERS
As of the latest figures given on June 29:
• Total number of confirmed cases: 147,578 (876 active cases) • New cases since June 28: 29 • Total deaths: 1,754 (no new deaths) • Hospitalized cases: 110 • Intensive care: 34 • Total vaccinations:4,941,795 doses administered; 1,368,464 second doses • Recovered from acute infection: 144,931 • Long-term care and assisted-living homes, and acute care facilities currently affected: 7
3:20 p.m. – B.C. reports 29 new cases, no additional deaths
British Columbia reported 29 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday.
There are currently 876 active COVID-19 cases in the province, including 110 people in hospitalized with the disease, according to a joint statement from Health Minister Adrian Dix and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.
Thirty-four people are being treated in intensive care.
There were no deaths to report on Tuesday. The provincial death toll from the pandemic remains at 1,754.
As of Tuesday, more than 4.9 million British Columbians had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while nearly 1.37 million are fully vaccinated after receiving their second shot.
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“Today, we are reporting that 78.3 per cent of all adults in B.C. and 77 per cent of those 12 and older have now received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. In addition, 31.6 per cent of all adults in B.C. and 29.5 per cent of those 12 and older have received their second dose,” the statement said.
B.C. Premier John Horgan says the province will move forward with step 3 of the provincial restart plan on July 1 as planned.
Horgan said there were just 29 new cases of COVID-19 reported on Monday.
“We can cheer for our kids, go to a friend’s place for dinner, plan that wedding, go to theatre, go to a concert,” said an upbeat Horgan.
Step 3 will see a return to normal indoor and outdoor personal gatherings, fairs and festivals can be held, casinos and nightclubs can reopen and all indoor fitness classes are allowed.
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There will still be restrictions on the numbers of people allowed in casinos and nightclubs and other public safety measures, however masks will no longer have to be worn in public indoor spaces.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said B.C. is making very encouraging progress in beating the pandemic, with high rates of immunization.
She said the provincial state of emergency will be lifted on Wednesday at midnight, however, B.C.’s public health emergency will remain in effect.
A majority of Americans (89 per cent) believe the pandemic situation is improving, but there’s a sharp partisan split on whether the U.S. is out of the woods.
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In a new Gallup Poll, a majority of Republicans (57 per cent) declared the pandemic finished, but only 4 per cent of Democrats agreed.
The web survey, conducted by Gallup between June 14 and 20, asked 4,843 adults from their panel about their perception of the COVID pandemic and its effect on their lives. The data is part of the organization’s continuing Americans’ Views of Pandemic in the U.S. report.
The results show that while a record number of Americans saw an improvement in pandemic recovery, only 4 per cent of Democrats thought the crisis had ended, as opposed to a majority of Republicans and 35 per cent of Independents.
Canada’s chief public health officer says without vaccines the third wave of COVID-19 in Canada would have been much deadlier.
Dr. Theresa Tam says as vaccines began to roll out among the most vulnerable, older populations in Canada, she was “quite struck” by how quickly infections and deaths plummeted in that age group.
In January, when the second wave of COVID-19 peaked in Canada, more than 4,000 Canadians over the age of 80 died from it.
In April, when the third wave peaked and most Canadians over 80 had at least one dose of vaccine, the number of deaths in that age group fell to 498.
Tam is thrilled with the current pace of vaccinations in Canada but says with the Delta variant appearing in more places, immunization targets need to be higher.
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She says higher vaccination rates among adults are particularly important since children under 12 are not yet eligible for vaccines.
A panel of tourism experts is predicting Canadians will be “travel hesitant” this summer, despite the easing of travel restrictions, and it will be years before the travel and accommodation sectors bounce back fully.
The CEO of Science World told a panel, hosted by the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, that “the pandemic has resulted in behavioural changes.”
“As a result, we can’t just reopen and expect people to return,” said Tracy Redies on Monday. “We have seen in the U.S. where things have reopened, that attendance levels remain low.”
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Redies said that is why Science World plans to continue to require masks be worn inside its facility until September, despite the expectation that B.C’s public health order on masks will be lifted on July 1.
Last year, the tourism industry in B.C. generated $7 billion in revenues, down from $21.5 billion in 2019. Workers in the hospitality and accommodation sectors suffered the highest number of jobs lost, with a third of those workers, about 40,000, remaining unemployed.
The managing director of sales, planning and effectiveness for Air Canada, Timothy Liu, told the panel any recovery will be slow.
“Summer is concerning for us, with ongoing border restrictions and quarantine requirements,” said Liu. “We’d like government leaders to get the message out that it is safe to travel.”
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– Lisa Cordasco
8 a.m. – Moderna’s shot productes antibodies against Delta variant
Moderna Inc. said its vaccine produced protective antibodies against the Delta variant spreading in Canada and many other parts of the world.
Moderna researchers tested blood samples from eight people for antibodies against versions of the spike protein from different coronavirus variants, including delta, which emerged in India.
The vaccine “produced neutralizing titers against all variants tested,” the company said in a statement.
Canada may have undercounted more than 5,700 COVID-19 deaths during the first 10 months of the pandemic — and even more since then, says a new report from the Royal Society of Canada.
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More than 26,000 people have died from COVID-19, so far, according to official data from the Public Health Agency of Canada. By Nov. 14, 2020, the country had recorded 11,009 deaths.
But the newly released study, which examined data between Feb. 1, 2020 and Nov. 28, 2020, found evidence that Canada has vastly undercounted COVID deaths. The report, completed by a team of five researchers, found that if Canada continued to miscount fatalities past last November “the pandemic mortality burden may be two times higher than reported.”
Based on previous estimates, Canada is believed to have experienced 80 per cent of its COVID-19 deaths among people in long-term care, the report says. This is roughly double the average of 40 per cent among equivalent countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
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However the report, released Tuesday morning, suggests that these uncounted deaths occurred primarily in Canadians older than 45 who were not living in long-term care homes. The team found that up to two-thirds of deaths that occurred outside of long-term care homes are missing from Canada’s total.
The COVID-19 pandemic is fizzling out in B.C. as the provincial health officer prepares to lift more restrictions on Canada Day — giving people a choice of whether to wear a mask in public indoor settings.
“Transmission has decreased. And we see particularly in the Lower Mainland where we have had high rates of cases for many, many months, they have now dropped dramatically,” said Dr. Bonnie Henry , as she reported 145 new cases over the past three days – including just 38 on Sunday.
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Henry highlighted that the crucial disease reproductive rate has continued to fall below one across the province.
“What we can see is we now have a sustained low reproductive rate. That means that for most people who are infected, they are not passing this virus on to anybody else. That’s how the pandemic will fizzle out over time.”
— David Carrigg
B.C. MAP OF WEEKLY COVID CASE COUNTS, VACCINATION RATES
Find out how your neighbourhood is doing in the battle against COVID-19 with the latest number of new cases, positivity rates, and vaccination rates:
B.C. VACCINE TRACKER
LOCAL RESOURCES for COVID-19 information
Here are a number of information and landing pages for COVID-19 from various health and government agencies.
Grande Prairie RCMP issued a warning Friday after it was revealed fentanyl linked to a deadly overdose was mixed with a chemical that doesn’t respond to naloxone treatment.
The drugs were initially seized on Feb. 28 after a fatal overdose, and this week, Health Canada reported back to Mounties that the fentanyl had been mixed with Bromazolam, which is a benzodiazepine.
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Mounties say this is the first recorded instance of Bromazolam in Alberta. The drug has previously been linked to nine fatal overdoses in New Brunswick in 2022.
The pills seized in Alberta were oval-shaped and stamped with “20” and “SS,” though Mounties say it can come in other forms.
Naloxone treatment, given in many cases of opioid toxicity, is not effective in reversing the effects of Bromazalam, Mounties said, and therefore, any fentanyl mixed with the benzodiazepine “would see a reduced effectiveness of naloxone, requiring the use of additional doses and may still result in a fatality.”
Photo of benzodiazepine-laced fentanyl seized earlier this year by Grande Prairie RCMP after a fatal overdose.edm
From January to November of last year, there were 1,706 opioid-related deaths in Alberta, and 57 linked to benzodiazepine, up from 1,375 and 43, respectively, in 2022.
Mounties say officers responded to about 1,100 opioid-related calls for service, last year with a third of those proving fatal. RCMP officers also used naloxone 67 times while in the field, a jump of nearly a third over the previous year.
The Canada Food Inspection Agency will continue to refer to highly pathogenic avian influenza in cattle as HPAI in cattle, and not refer to it as bovine influenza A virus (BIAV), as suggested by the American Association of Bovine Practitioners earlier this month.
The CFIA’s naming policy is consistent with the agency’s U.S. counterparts’, as the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has also said it will continue referring to it as HPAI or H5N1.
Appelt explains how the CFIA is learning from the U.S. experience to-date, and how it is working with veterinarians across Canada to stay vigilant for signs of the disease in dairy and beef cattle.
As of April 19, there has not been a confirmed case of HPAI in cattle in Canada. Appelt says it’s too soon to say if an eventual positive case will significantly restrict animal movement, as is the case with positive poultry cases.
This is a major concern for the cattle industry, as beef cattle especially move north and south across the U.S. border by the thousands. Appelt says that CFIA will address an infection in each species differently in conjunction with how the disease is spread and the threat to neighbouring farms or livestock.
Currently, provincial dairy organizations have advised producers to postpone any non-essential tours of dairy barns, as a precaution, in addition to other biosecurity measures to reduce the risk of cattle contracting HPAI.
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Canada has seen a concerning rise in measles cases in the first months of 2024.
By the third week of March, the country had already recorded more than three times the number of cases as all of last year. Canada had just 12 cases of measles in 2023, up from three in 2022.
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