The number of people actively fighting COVID-19 infections in B.C. hit an all-time high for the second day in a row on August 18, when the B.C. government announced that 775 people are battling the disease that spawned the ongoing global pandemic.
Before Monday, when 743 people were actively fighting infections, the highest number of people with active infections in the province had been 717, on April 28.
The rise in people fighting the disease comes thanks to a disproportionate number of people newly getting infected.
Health Minister Adrian Dix and deputy provincial health officer Dr. Reka Gustafson said 83 people had been confirmed to have COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, while 51 people officially recovered from the disease during that same 24-hour period.
A total of 3,704 people have recovered from COVID-19 in B.C. Since January 28, when the first case of COVID-19 was discovered in the province, there have been a total of 4,677 cases.
The good news is that hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions remain comparatively low.
The province now has six people in hospital with COVID-19 (up two from Monday) while three people are in intensive care units, which is the same number as the day before. The other patients – the vast majority – are self isolating at home.
B.C.'s intensive care units have recently been comparatively empty in recent weeks, compared with April 6, when a record 72 people were receiving special care in those units. The first British Columbian with COVID-19 who needed the ICU entered that ward on March 4, more than five weeks after the first case was identified in the province. That lag time, and the comparative bump in new daily cases in August may set the stage for an increase in the number of ICU patients in future weeks.
No new people have died from the virus since the last reporting period, leaving the death toll so far in B.C. at 198.
While a higher percentage of coronavirus-infected people die in B.C. than in some other jurisdictions, or more than 4.2%, the province has done well to limit new deaths in recent weeks. The province took 88 days after recording its first COVID-19 case to register its 100th virus-related death. It has since gone 115 days and has yet to reach the 200-death threshold.
In the U.S., which has the world's highest number of infections, 171,516 people have died out of 5,474,630 people who have caught the virus, for a death rate of 3.1%, according to Johns Hopkins University. In Brazil, the globe's second highest source for infections, 108,536 people have died out of 3,359,570 people infected, for a 3.2% death rate, also according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Aside from releasing new data, the B.C. government Tuesday also formally extended the provincial state of emergency. That allows Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth to continue to use extraordinary powers under the province's Emergency Program Act to support its pandemic response
