VICTORIA -- Health officials in British Columbia announced the discovery of more than 100 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday.
The new cases were discovered over the weekend following the province's last coronavirus update Friday afternoon.
The 102 cases announced Monday include 51 cases found between Friday and Saturday, 19 cases found between Saturday and Sunday, and 32 cases discovered between Sunday and Monday. Four of the cases are epidemiologically linked, meaning no COVID-19 test was conducted.
B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix said the discovery of more than 100 new cases over the weekend "is a lot more than we are comfortable with and something that we have to respond to."
There are now 253 active cases of the virus in B.C., with 16 people in hospital, including four in critical care.
"We now have over 60 cases related to the multiple exposures in and around Kelowna over the last few weeks," said provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, referring to private gatherings held over the Canada Day long weekend.
Outbreaks in the health-care system are ongoing at one long-term care centre and two acute-care centres in the province.
B.C.'s coronavirus death toll remains a 189, with no deaths recorded over the weekend.
How the virus spread
Health officials also revealed new data Monday related to how the virus has spread in B.C.
The provincial health officer said the median age for those affected by COVID-19 in B.C. is approximately 50 years old, though she expects the median age will start to skew younger.
"We have not yet seen that sort of change that we've seen in other parts of the country of younger people being more affected," Henry said.
"Having said that, we know that many and most of the cases that have arisen over the last weekend – the last few days – have been in people in their 20s and 30s so I expect that number will change."
COVID-19's fatality rate among those who have contracted the virus is currently 6.1 per cent overall, according to the data. However, those patients who contracted the virus from an existing outbreak fare much worse, with 12.9 per cent of those cases proving fatal compared to a 2.6 per cent fatality rate in non-outbreak-related cases.
In care homes the fatality rate is higher still, with a staggering 20.2 per cent of cases in long-term care and 22.4 per cent of cases in acute care resulting in death.
"If we look at those [outbreak-related cases], our case fatality rate among long-term care, assisted living is very high," the provincial health officer said. "We know that about one in five people who are infected in those situations will die."
The median age of those who have died of COVID-19 in the province is 85 years old.
Henry said that despite travel restrictions, health officials are still seeing cases entering B.C. from outside the country.
"There continues to be introductions [of the virus] from international travel," Henry warned. "That is sometimes essential workers coming back and forth from the United States, it is our temporary foreign workers in some cases, as well as Canadians who have repatriated from other countries, including more recently, India."
The provincial health officer said there is also a growing trend of patients who have tested positive for the virus having a larger number of personal contacts who need to be traced and notified than in the early days of the COVID-19 shutdown.
"We had brought it down to three or four, but now we're seeing people who have 20 or 30 conacts," Henry said.
"We knew that would happen as we moved into this phase of our restart here in B.C.," she added. "But the challenge now is that we are no longer having safe connections, and that is what is spreading this virus."
The provincial health officer said more cases linked to parties, visits to restaurants and other social gatherings are turning up.
The data included responses to a B.C. government survey on the province's handling of COVID-19 and how it was affecting British Columbians.
Nearly half of respondents – 47 per cent – reported declining mental health during the pandemic, with 15 per cent saying they had lost employment.
Approximately 62 per cent of respondents reported concerns for the health of a family member, while 31 per cent reported difficulties meeting their financial needs. Five per cent of respondents said they would likely have to move to a more affordable home due to COVID-19.
There have now been 3,300 cases of COVID-19 recorded in B.C. since the pandemic began.
Most of those have been in the Lower Mainland area, including 1,713 cases in the Fraser Health region and 1,042 cases in the Vancouver Coastal Health region.
The Vancouver Island region has reported 142 cases, an increase of six since Friday.
Elsewhere in the province, the Interior Health region has recorded 280 cases and the Northern Health region has confirmed 69 cases since the pandemic began.
Another 54 confirmed cases in the province have been found among people who reside outside of Canada.
A total of 2,858 people in B.C. have fully recovered from the virus since the pandemic began.
