The number of COVID-19 cases in Burnaby jumped by 71% in the month of September.
That’s according to statistics released Thursday by B.C.’s Centre for Disease Control, giving more detailed breakdowns of case counts in local communities.
The number of coronavirus cases reported in Burnaby since the beginning of the pandemic in January rose to 570 by Sept. 30, a 71% increase over the 332 cases reported to the end of August.
The numbers point to Burnaby as one of the areas of the Lower Mainland with a relatively high incidence of COVID-19 cases, since the beginning of the pandemic. Burnaby has also started to see exposures at local schools.
Other Lower Mainland areas with a high incidence of COVID-19 cases per population include Vancouver, Surrey, North Shore, Abbotsford and Mission.
Surrey, one of the most highly populated areas of the Lower Mainland, reported 1,814 cases of coronavirus to the end of September. Richmond, with 277 cases, is one of the areas with the lowest incidence of the virus.
B.C. reached a sobering milestone this week, with over 10,000 cases of the virus reported. The number of active cases also increased slightly.
Province-wide, people between 20 and 39 still account for the largest number of COVID-19 cases. A total of 952 children and teens under 20 had tested positive by Oct. 8 across B.C., but still made up only six per cent of total COVID-19 cases, while making up 19 per cent of the population.
As of Friday, there had been 10,185 COVID-19 cases reported in B.C. with 1,406 active cases.
Dr. Bonnie Henry, the province’s medical health officer, has urged families to keep gatherings small this Thanksgiving weekend to help stop the spread of the virus.
Infectious disease specialists say a recent surge in COVID-19 cases that surpasses a spike last spring must not be shrugged off as merely a byproduct of increased testing.
"I think minimizing right now is a real mistake," said Dr. Lynora Saxinger of the University of Alberta. "People are not wanting to believe that this is a thing, because I think they don't want to return to the state that we were living in earlier in the year. That's a dangerous path to take and we should be much more precautionary right now."
- With files from the Canadian Press, and Jane Seyd, North Shore News
