Another 499 cases of COVID-19 were reported in B.C. over the weekend – including 21 new cases in the Interior Health region – taking the provincial total to 11,687 cases, and 611 in the Interior.

There were 172 cases from Friday to Saturday, 153 from Saturday to Sunday, and another 174 from Sunday into Monday.

Active cases across B.C. were up 126 from Friday to 1,639, with 67 people in hospital, of which 19 are in ICU. In the Interior, there are 36 active cases of the virus with two people in hospital, one in ICU with COVID-19.

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says we are seeing continued, ongoing growth of the virus particularly in the Lower Mainland, but she says we are not seeing explosive growth, noting hospitals are not being overwhelmed by COVID-19.

“One can say we are in our second wave in B.C. but we have control over what that wave looks like,” she said.

“We need to do what we can to ensure we don’t see a sharp increase as has been seen in other parts of Canada and the world. This can overwhelm the health system and could affect surgeries.”

Henry says there continues to be community transmission of the virus in B.C. with clusters of cases at some grocery stores and food processing plants.

“Here in B.C. we’ve managed to relatively control our community spread,” Henry said, noting contact tracers are working around the clock. She says it is important for people to continue to follow public health guidelines, like keeping groups small and wearing masks.

‘The vast majority of people have taken this to heart,” she added.

Henry also reported two more deaths taking the death toll from COVID-19 to 253 people. There are now 4,028 people under active public health monitoring after they came into close contact with someone who tested positive.

All told, there are now 9,753 people who have recovered from COVID-19, about 83.4 per cent of the total number of cases.

Earlier in the day, the total number of COVID-19 cases in Canada passed the 200,000 mark, four months after the country reached the 100,000-case threshold.