This map illustrates the number of active COVID-19 cases in Greater Vancouver from March 14 to 20, 2021. (BC Centre for Disease Control image)

Jump in number of active COVID-19 cases in Delta

141 active cases for the week of March 14 to 20 the most in the city since the week ending Dec. 5

There was another jump in the number of active COVID-19 cases in Delta last week, marking the most cases in the city since early December.

Every Wednesday, the BC Centre for Disease Control releases a map showing the geographic distribution of COVID-19 cases by local health area of residence. The latest weekly map shows Delta had 141 cases for the week of March 14 to 20, a jump of 24 over the week previous week.

The number of active cases in the city has been climbing for seven straight weeks — from a low of 59 the week ending Jan. 30 to a high of 117 for the week ending March 13 — and last week’s numbers are the second highest since the BC CDC began releasing weekly case totals by local health area. The previous high was the week ending Dec. 5 — the first weekly map released by the BC CDC — with 208 cases.

(Story continues below graph)

!function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var e in a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var t=document.getElementById(“datawrapper-chart-“+e)||document.querySelector(“iframe[src*='”+e+”‘]”);t&&(t.style.height=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][e]+”px”)}}))}();

The overall number of active cases in the Fraser Health region increased last week to 2,215, up 83 cases from the week before and the highest number of active cases since the week ending Dec. 19 (2,839).

Six of the other 12 other local health areas in the region also saw increases over the previous week, most notably in Surrey, South Surrey/White Rock, Langley and Abbotsford, which saw their active case counts climb by 21, 33, 31 and 20, respectively.

From the start of the pandemic through the end of February 2021, there were a total of 2,723 COVID-19 cases in Delta, with 317 new cases from Jan. 31, 2021.

THE LATEST: B.C.’s COVID-19 climb continues with 716 cases Wednesday (March 24, 2021)

SEE ALSO: ‘A slow and steady increase’ pushes B.C. into the third wave, top doctor says (March 23, 2021)

Meanwhile, there are currently no outbreaks at any Delta long-term care, assisted living or independent living facilities.

As of Wednesday morning (March 24), Fraser Health listed exposures at five Delta schools on its website: Burnsview Secondary (March 10), Gibson Elementary (March 11 and 12), McCloskey Elementary (March 11), North Delta Secondary (March 10 and 11) and Immaculate Conception School (March 11).

Fraser Health defines exposure as “a single person with lab-confirmed COVID-19 infection who attended school during their infectious period.” Two or more individuals is defined as a cluster, while an outbreak describes a situation involving “multiple individuals with lab-confirmed COVID-19 infections when transmission is likely widespread within the school setting.”

SEE ALSO: B.C.’s ‘extremely medically vulnerable’ can begin booking COVID-19 shots March 29 (March 23, 2021)

SEE ALSO: Mass vaccination centres set to open in South Surrey, Cloverdale and Delta (March 23, 2021)

SEE ALSO: Younger people with COVID now requiring longer hospital, ICU stays: Dr. Henry (March 22, 2021)


editor@northdeltareporter.comLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter

North Delta Reporter