COVID-19 in B.C.: Daily new case numbers continue to increase while cases confirmed at gym and on flights

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      The number of new COVID-19 cases in B.C. continues to slowly increase this week and public-exposure events are continuing to develop.

      Daily update: July 10

      For today’s B.C. COVID-19 update, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix issued a joint statement.

      The week began with seven new cases on July 6, followed by 12 cases on July 7, and 18 cases on July 8.

      After 20 cases were confirmed yesterday (July 8), Dr. Henry and Dix stated today (July 10) that there are 25 new cases, bringing the cumulative provincial total during the pandemic to 3,053 cases, with 990 cases in Vancouver Coastal Health, 1,610 in Fraser Health, 135 in the Island Health region, 202 in the Interior Health region, 65 in the Northern Health region, and 51 cases among people who reside outside of Canada.

      Of those cases, 187 of them are active, including 16 patients in hospital (five of them in intensive-care units).

      With no new health-care outbreaks reported, two long-term care facilities and one acute-care facility have remaining active outbreaks.

      Dr. Henry and Dix stated that community-exposure events continue to occur in the province (see below). After their news release was issued, Interior Health announced that eight individuals, including some from the Lower Mainland and Alberta, attended several events and venues in Kelowna from June 25 to July 6, and may have exposed others to the coronavirus. (For more details, see this article.)

      Unfortunately, there has been one new death, raising the total fatalities to 187 in the province.

      A total of 2,679 people have recovered from the coronavirus.

      Dr. Henry is currently on a break and will return to present a briefing on Tuesday (July 14).

      Cases at gym and on flights

      CTV News reported today that a member of a fitness centre in Burnaby has tested positive for the virus.

      The individual made several visits to GoodLife Fitness’s Burnaby Northgate location at 200–3433 North Road from 7:30 and 10:30 a.m. between June 22 and July 3.

      Although Fraser Health has permitted the gym to remain open as transmission risk remains low, anyone who was at the facility during those times is asked to monitor themselves for symptoms for 14 days after the potential exposure date.

      Meanwhile, more recent flights have been confirmed to have had COVID-19 cases aboard.

      The B.C. Centre for Disease Control added a flight from Mexico to B.C. to its list of international flights with confirmed COVID-19 cases.

      Aeromexico Flight 696 from Mexico City to Vancouver on June 25 was confirmed as having had at least one COVID-19 case aboard. No row numbers were specified.

      Meanwhile, Air Canada Flight AC224 from Vancouver to Calgary on July 5 was also confirmed as having a minimum of one COVID-19 case. The rows affected are from 10 to 16.

      Anyone on these flights should monitor themselves for symptoms for 14 days. (For other previous flights confirmed with COVID-19 cases, see this article.) 

      Anyone who develops symptoms should immediately self-isolate and contact 811 to arrange for testing.

      In addition to the previously mentioned large-scale incident over several days in Kelowna, other recent public-exposure incidents have taken place in Vancouver at Brandi's Exotic Show Lounge, Hotel Belmont, and the No. 5 Orange (which expanded to two confirmed cases and additional dates), and a case was confirmed at a McDonald's restaurant in Surrey. 

      You can follow Craig Takeuchi on Twitter at @cinecraig or on Facebook

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