Here's your daily update with everything you need to know on the novel coronavirus situation in B.C.
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Here’s your daily update with everything you need to know on the novel coronavirus situation in B.C. for Aug. 13, 2021.
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We’ll provide summaries of what’s going on in B.C. right here so you can get the latest news at a glance. This page will be updated regularly throughout the day, with developments added as they happen.
Check back here for more updates throughout the day. You can also get the latest COVID-19 news delivered to your inbox weeknights at 7 p.m. by subscribing to our newsletter here.
B.C.’S COVID-19 CASE NUMBERS
As of the latest figures given on Aug. 12
• Total number of confirmed cases: 154,362 (3,834 active cases)
• New cases since Aug. 10: 513
• Total deaths: 1,779 (one new death)
• Hospitalized cases: 81
• Intensive care: 33
• Total vaccinations: 3,814,635 received first dose; 3,318,751 second doses
• Recovered from acute infection: 148,702
• Long-term care and assisted-living homes, and acute care facilities currently affected: 8
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IN-DEPTH:COVID-19: Here are all the B.C. cases of the novel coronavirus
B.C. GUIDES AND LINKS
• COVID-19: Here’s everything you need to know about the novel coronavirus
• COVID-19: Here’s how to get your vaccination shot in B.C.
• COVID-19: Look up your neighbourhood in our interactive map of case and vaccination rates in B.C.
• COVID-19: Afraid of needles? Here’s how to overcome your fear and get vaccinated
• COVID-19: Five things to know about the P1 variant spreading in B.C.
• COVID-19: Here are all the B.C. cases of the novel coronavirus in 2021
• COVID-19: Have you been exposed? Here are all B.C. public health alerts
• COVID-19 at B.C. schools: Here are the school district exposure alerts
• COVID-19: Avoid these hand sanitizers that are recalled in Canada
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• COVID-19: Here’s where to get tested in Metro Vancouver
• B.C. COVID-19 Symptom Self-Assessment Tool
LATEST NEWS on COVID-19 in B.C.
B.C. orders all long-term care home workers to be vaccinated
The union representing 20,000 workers in long-term care and assisted-living homes in B.C. fear a mandatory vaccination order will push many workers out of health care altogether.
On Thursday, the provincial health officer ordered that all staff at long-term care and assisted-living facilities must get fully vaccinated by Oct. 12 and unvaccinated workers must wear masks until they get their jabs.
This is the first time Dr. Bonnie Henry has issued a mandatory vaccination order for any sector in B.C.
She also ordered that volunteers and personal service providers at care homes not be allowed in until they are fully vaccinated, effective immediately. Unvaccinated visitors will still be allowed to visit family in care homes, but must wear masks.
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Hospital Employees’ Union spokesman Mike Old said a recent survey found almost a quarter of his members were likely to leave health care within two years due to pandemic pressures.
“While many will support this measure, it will be controversial and it may push some to leave their jobs altogether,” Old said in a statement.
Terry Lake, CEO of the B.C. Care Providers Association and EngAge B.C., said his organization — representing 154 long-term care homes and 92 assisted-living facilities — supports the new rules.
-David Carrigg
‘Choices have consequences’: Can you sue if an unvaccinated person gives you COVID-19?
As the drumbeats of a Delta-driven fourth wave grow louder, an argument is being made that people who choose not to get vaccinated should face fines, loss of such benefits as employment insurance, increased rates for life insurance and personal liability, if it could be proven their behaviour caused the hospitalization or death of others.
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“Choices have consequences. Personal responsibility matters,” Arthur Caplan, founding head of New York University School of Medicine’s division of ethics, and Dorit Reiss, a law professor at the University of California’s Hastings College of Law wrote in Barron’s magazine.
“Want to reject expert opinion and the established facts about COVID and put yourself and others at risk? Then you should pay, if your choice harms others.”
Others say it can be awfully difficult to confidently trace a COVID-19 infection to its source and that while someone who transmits an infection to others can be liable if they act negligently — say, if they take a risk that is reasonably foreseeable to hurt another — refusing a COVID shot does not alone constitute negligence.
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Caplan knows the counterarguments to holding non-vaccinators liable: There’s no evidence that people who are strongly anti-vaccine are going to be moved by a fine, and many have argued people respond better to carrots than sticks. But Caplan says he has given up on incentives. “We tried them, and they didn’t work.”
Read more HERE.
-Sharon Kirkey
513 new cases, one death reported
B.C. reported one new COVID-19 death and 513 cases of the virus on Thursday, of which 52 per cent were in Interior Health.
There are 3,596 active cases, of which 81 are being treated in hospital including 33 in intensive care.
Dogs help health care workers to detect virus
For years dogs have been helping health care workers in B.C. sniff out bacterial or viral infections and cancer. Now some have been taught to detect the COVID-19 virus.
Vancouver Coastal Health’s canine scent detection team – Canines for Care – has been detecting C. difficile in healthcare settings for five years.
Now they have added two Labrador retrievers, Micro and Yoki, and one English springer spaniel, Finn, who have been certified for COVID-19 scent detection and found to be successful in identifying the virus in a laboratory setting, according to VCH.
Allison Muniak, executive director of quality and patient safety, infection prevention and control and risk management at VCH, said they wanted to tackle COVID-19 infection prevention from every possible angle.
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B.C. MAP OF WEEKLY COVID CASE COUNTS, VACCINATION RATES
Find out how your neighbourhood is doing in the battle against COVID-19 with the latest number of new cases, positivity rates, and vaccination rates:
B.C. VACCINE TRACKER
LOCAL RESOURCES for COVID-19 information
Here are a number of information and landing pages for COVID-19 from various health and government agencies.
• B.C. COVID-19 Symptom Self-Assessment Tool
• Vancouver Coastal Health – Information on Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)
• HealthLink B.C. – Coronavirus (COVID-19) information page
• B.C. Centre for Disease Control – Novel coronavirus (COVID-19)
• Government of Canada – Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Outbreak update
• World Health Organization – Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak
–with files from The Canadian Press
COVID-19 update for Aug. 13: 513 new cases, one death | B.C. orders long term care workers to be vaccinated | Dogs help sniff out virus - Vancouver Sun
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