VICTORIA -- Health officials in British Columbia gave another record-setting update on new COVID-19 cases in the province Wednesday and added 10 more deaths to the provincial toll.
There were 762 cases of the coronavirus identified over the past 24 hours in B.C., for a total of 24,422 cases since the pandemic began.
The province’s death toll from the disease now stands at 320.
There are 6,861 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. The number of news cases announced Wednesday and the number of active cases both surpassed record highs set just one day prior.
There are 209 people in hospital with COVID-19, including 58 in intensive care.
An additional 9,871 people are under active public health monitoring due to exposure to known cases of COVID-19.
The province also announced three new health-care outbreaks at Agecare Harmony Court Estates in Burnaby, at Menno Home in Abbotsford and at Peace Villa in Fort St. John.
There were no new community outbreaks reported Wednesday and a previous outbreak at La Casa resort in Kelowna has been declared over.
“We have seen a rising number of new cases of COVID-19 across the province and we need to slow this down,” said provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix in a statement.
“This second surge is putting a strain on our health-care system, our workplaces and us all. We need to ease this pressure so we can continue to manage the virus in our province and also continue to do the many activities that are important to us,” they added.
The vast majority of the new cases reported Wednesday are located in the Lower Mainland, with 481 in the Fraser Health region and 210 in Vancouver Coastal Health.
Elsewhere in B.C., health officials identified 20 new cases in the Island Health region, 38 in Interior Health and 13 in Northern Health.
Approximately 16,914 people who tested positive for the coronavirus have recovered.
