British Columbia reported 46 COVID-19 deaths and 2,077 new cases of the disease over the weekend, between noon on Friday (Nov. 27) and noon on Monday (Nov. 30).
An additional 277 cases were added to B.C.’s total caseload after an earlier accounting mistake was corrected in Fraser Health.
Henry said 78 per cent of the weekend deaths — 36 of 46 — involved residents of long-term health care facilities, the oldest of whom was 103. The 46 deaths were the most ever recorded over a weekend. A total of 441 people in B.C. have now died from COVID-19.
Of the new cases, 1,642 are in Fraser Health, 371 are in Vancouver Coastal Health, 212 are in Interior Health, 73 are in Northern Health and 58 are in Island Health.
Total confirmed cases to date are 33,238, with 8,855 active cases. There are 316 people in hospital, of whom 75 are in intensive care.
There are 10,139 people being monitored and 23,111 people having recovered from COVID-19.
Across B.C., there are 62 outbreaks — 57 in long-term care homes and five in hospital acute-care wards — involving 847 residents and 487 staff. There was one new community outbreak over the weekend at an elementary school in Newton which has been closed for two weeks as a result.
"If you are thinking that it may be okay for you to bend the rules, remember that COVID-19 is a serious, life-threatening illness," Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said.
"By choosing to make the exception for yourself, you are not only going against all that we are doing to slow this virus down and putting yourself at risk, but you are also endangering the lives of others. We are facing a significant storm surge, which is why, with the start of vaccine availability only a few short weeks away, it is so important for all of us to work together to keep our wall strong, to push back on COVID-19 united and together. We have done this before and we can do it again. Let's do our part today to slow community transmission, to slow COVID-19 and protect everyone in our province."
During an update to reporters on Monday, Henry said it's been a challenging pandemic and B.C is headed into the middle of its second wave.
“Many occasions and daily life activities we would normally do together, we must now do apart,” Henry said.
She thanked faith leaders specifically as they support their congregations during these challenging times, noting she was contacted by many over the weekend to talk about the issues being dealt with.
“And [I] was reminded that faith is not a building, it’s not about Sunday mornings, but it's about every day and how we connect with each other and support each other,” Henry said.
In Interior Health, there have been three deaths in total since the pandemic began. The weekend’s new case count of 212 brings to 1,750 the total number of COVID-19 cases in Interior Health, with 15 people in IH hospitals, five of whom are in intensive care.
The health region has 490 active cases.
Interior Health has one new outbreak, at Kelowna’s Mountainview Village care home. An outbreak at Sun Point Village care home in Kelowna was declared over on Nov. 27. An outbreak at the Hamlets assisted living facility in Kamloops in Westsyde was limited to a single staff member and last week was declared over.
